Huskies Hold Off Tigers 17-14 For Big DVC Win

Considering Wheaton Warrenville South seldom loses conference games and has been known to pull out a number of wild finishes, you couldn’t blame  fans for being nervous when the Tigers lined up for an onside kick late in Friday’s game.

But when the Huskies recovered the kick to secure a 17-14 victory, you couldn’t blame the Huskies fans and their players for putting on a big celebration.

After all, it had been three years since had beaten the Tigers. In fact it had been that long since any one in the DuPage Valley Conference had toppled the state powers.

“We haven’t beaten them yet so this feels nice,” senior linebacker Tim Davis said after the hosts improved to 2-2 on the year and 1-1 in conference.

The Huskies jumped ahead of WWS 14-0 on a 48-yard TD run by Danny Puknaitis in the first quarter and a 68-yard sprint to the end zone by quarterback Tyler Gehr in the second quarter.

From there, the Huskies defense made just enough big plays to hold off the Tigers (1-3, 1-1), who had four turnovers, including a fumbled punt return and a pair of second-half interceptions.

“It starts with the D line and they were tearing it up up there,” said Davis, who had a fourth-quarter interception and was in on numerous tackles. “Everyone was making plays. We really played as a team and came together.”

For the Tigers, Thaddeus Armstrong scored on a 1-yard keeper in the waning seconds to close the gap to 14-7 at the half, but the Huskies’ Ron Coluzzi booted a 40-yard field goal in the third quarter and then the visitors hurt themselves with turnovers.

Armstrong’s 4-yard TD pass to Thomas Cetina with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter gave them a glimmer of hope, but when Puknaitis recovered the onside kick for , the game was over.

Tigers coach Ron Muhitch said the Huskies offensive line made more plays on Friday than his young line did and that was the difference. “’s offensive line beat our offensive line, plain and simple,” he said. “But we’re young. We’re learning lessons that typically the Tigers don’t have to learn. We’re really struggling with execution right now.”

Tigers tailback Dan Vitale was held to 40 yards on 15 carries, while Puknaitis and Gehr combined to run for 229 yards for the Huskies — more than half of which came on the two long TD runs.

“We’re excited to be 2-2 after playing four great teams,” Huskies coach Sean Drendel said. “They’ve run the table three of the last four years and we’re really happy to win.”