Historically speaking, Friday night's football matchup between Wheaton Academy and Riverside Brookfield is typically a lopsided event in favor of the Bulldogs. In the past six years, R-B has bested Wheaton Academy five times, twice by significant margins and twice after Wheaton Academy had a lead going into the 4th quarter.
However, this year's Wheaton Academy performance was unlike previous ones, with the Warriors jumping out to an early 16-0, expanding it to a 30-7 lead early in the second half before the Bulldogs staged a fourth quarter comeback that came up short to a final 30-20 Warrior victory.
Junior quarterback David Dorn completed 75% of his passes for 143 yards with a touchdown pass to Junior receiver Joseph Bracy. Dorn supplemented his passing yards with 38 yards of rushing including three crucial 4th down conversions behind a Warrior offensive line that also mustered up rushing touchdowns for senior running backs Trevor Donna and Cristopher Carstens.
As has been the case all season, the Warrior defense came through in holding RB to negative 23 yards of rushing for the entire game. The defensive line spearheaded by seniors Joshua Brunner, Zach Smith, Josh Friedland and junior Peter Johanik tallied 4 tackles-for-losses and a sack with a scoop-and-score fumble recovery for a touchdown on a punt return by Smith. Carstens and Donna as linebackers on defense led the Warriors in tackles with eight a piece.
Offensive lineman and place kicker James Kapitaniuk was a perfect 4 for 4 in extra points adding to his perfection with extra point conversions on the season at 14. On kickoff, Kapitaniuk pinned the Bulldogs on their own 2 yard line in the second quarter after an RB returned fumbled a kickoff leading to a defensive safety on the ensuing play .
The Warriors head into their final game of the shorted spring season 4-1 taking on Elmwood Park on the road Friday, April 23 at 7:30pm.
