Neuqua Valley’s Jake Eskoff still doesn’t know where he’ll be from series to series.
But being on the field or on the bench, though, is a far different place than the junior quarterback was at this time last fall.
“I was watching this game in the stands,” Eskoff said.
Eskoff moved from Hartland, Wis., 25 miles west of Milwaukee, to Naperville to start his sophomore year. The transfer, coupled with a concussion, prevented him from playing all last season.
But he was front and center Friday night. Eskoff threw a touchdown pass to Isaiah Robertson and later led two second-half scoring drives in the Wildcats’ 24-17 DuPage Valley win over Waubonsie Valley.
“The rivalry, you hear about things, but this was awesome,” said Eskoff, who finished 9-for-14 for 112 yards.
It was a little something else, too.
A couple shoves between Robertson and Waubonsie’s Charles Robinson on the Neuqua sidelines late in the first half turned into a scuffle.
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Eskoff, who rotates with Jack Bastable, helped settle things to start the second half.
After Nick Lamoso returned a kickoff 78 yards for Waubonsie (2-1, 2-1) to set up a 1-yard TD run by Tanner Westwood to tie it at 14, Eskoff had the answer.
He completed two passes in a 10-play drive, capped by Cameron Raupach’s 3-yard TD run.
Ryan Wheeler promptly picked off Westwood, and Neuqua (3-0, 3-0) made it hurt. Eskoff completed passes of 21 and 11 yards to Donny Navarro and Greg McClellan on third-and-long situations and twice hard-counted Waubonsie offsides on third down.
It turned into Stephen Ruiz’s 20-yard field goal for a 24-14 lead.
“Jake kept his head level and led us,” Robertson said.
Robertson had a big hand in that.
Two, in fact.
On Neuqua’s first TD, Eskoff completed a 15-yard jump ball into the end zone. Waubonsie’s Quaid Gill got two hands on it, but the 6-foot-3 Robertson reached over Gill and came down with it.
“I thought it was going to be an interception,” said Robertson, a Notre Dame recruit. “But coach always tells us that the play isn’t over until the ball hits the ground. I got my hands on it and I kind of wrestled it away.”
Robertson had his hands on a lot of what Neuqua did.
He returned a kickoff 50 yards to set up his TD and intercepted a pass to end the first half. Robertson caught five passes for 40 yards and drew three pass interference penalties.
Relatively quiet Neuqua’s first two games, Robertson was far from it.
“He’s just an unbelievable player — you don’t even realize it in the stats,” Neuqua coach Bill Ellinghaus said.
Westwood went 11-for-24 for 164 yards for Waubonsie, his 30-yard TD pass to Josh LeMoine giving the Warriors their only lead at 7-0.
Westwood, though, was intercepted three times. Waubonsie, turnover-free its first two games, committed four. Joey Elwood had the last pick for Neuqua, wrestling away a deep ball with 3:59 left.
“You have to be crisp in a game like this and we weren’t crisp,” Waubonsie coach Paul Murphy said.
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.