Naperville North senior running back William Eloe was a human battering ram on Friday night.
The 5-foot-11, 198-pound Eloe kept hammering at Naperville Central’s stout defense. At first, he didn’t have much to show for it, more like a chiseler chipping away at a block of granite.
Eventually, he broke through.
“He just kind of wears on you,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “He’s a really good football player.”
Eloe showed that against the Redhawks. He rushed 27 times for 109 hard-earned yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner with 11.3 seconds left, as the Huskies rallied for a thrilling 21-15 victory in the regular-season finale at North Central College’s Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville.
With the win, Eloe and Naperville North (6-3, 5-2) clinched a playoff berth as well as a share of the Southwest Valley Blue Conference championship alongside Lincoln-Way East, Sandburg and Lockport.
“I knew that even though we weren’t getting enough yardage as we want in the first couple quarters, it’s all about body blows,” Eloe said. “We were trying to beat them down.
“We’re throwing helmets, we’re throwing shoulders, so even though we’re not getting as much yardage as you might think, we’re beating them down.”
Slowly but surely, that’s exactly what happened as the offensive line gave Eloe some space.
“By the time it gets to the fourth quarter, we’re going to start dishing pain out,” Eloe said. “My O-line, if they open up seams for me, then I can get downhill, and I love dishing out pain to the linebackers.”
Naperville Central (2-7, 2-5) entered the fourth quarter with a 15-7 lead on the strength of two touchdown runs by sophomore running back Ryan Jacobson and a 44-yard field goal by senior Gavin Ellison.
But Naperville North junior quarterback Dante Colasante, making his first career start in place of injured senior Josiah Nothacker, engineered two scoring drives. Colasante completed four passes on the first to set up Eloe’s 12-yard touchdown run with 5:34 remaining.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty forced the Huskies to attempt a game-tying two-point conversion from the 18-yard line, and it did not succeed. But the defense forced a three-and-out, and the Huskies got the ball back at their 46-yard line with 4:06 to go.
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Colasante scrambled for 8 yards and completed two passes, including a 15-yarder to junior wide receiver Jack Zitko. Then it was Eloe’s turn. He carried the ball on the final six plays, covering 28 yards, just as Colasante knew he would.
“Eloe is a great player,” Colasante said. “He’s always very reliable. You know when you give him the ball, he’s going to give 100% max effort, and that’s all you can ask for him to do at running back.”
How was Eloe still relatively fresh?
“Weight room,” he said. “If you just get strong enough, you’re a little more durable, and I kind of enjoy contact.
“I love contact, even though it hurts. I know they’re hurting, too, and that’s why l love playing football.”
Eloe loved his final two plays the best. The first was the decisive 1-yard scoring plunge behind senior left tackle Will Harvey, and the second was a two-point conversion run.
“We were doing a set, left power, so that was Jake Johnson pulling there, big world destroyer,” Eloe said. “He’s coming in just wrecking everybody, and then Harv, our left tackle, is just washing everything down.
“So credit to the O-line. They’re all kind of destroying everybody, and l love them to death.”
Eloe also loved the play of the 5-9, 170-pound Colasante, who completed 21 of 25 passes for 168 yards and rushed seven times for 40 yards. Zitko caught seven balls for 75 yards.
“He played amazing,” Eloe said of Colasante. “That one drive, he stepped up and started throwing dimes down the field.
“He’s really talented, and it’s good on him for stepping up in a big game when it matters.”
Eloe, who rushed for 92 yards and both touchdowns during Naperville North’s 14-6 upset win over Lincoln-Way East one week earlier, has been doing that all season. He has 1,085 yards and 14 touchdowns on 196 carries.
This effort was the sweetest for Eloe because it came against the Redhawks.
“I knew going into this game, records don’t matter,” he said. “All they wanted was to beat us and punch us in the mouth, and I knew in the fourth quarter they’d come out, and that’s what they kind of did.
“They were trying to intimidate, trying to be tough. But I knew it was all a façade, and by the time we got to the end there, we were going to out-tough them.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.