West Aurora’s Michael Williams should have been exhausted. If he was, his big smile hid it well.
The offensive options this season for coach Nate Eimer are many, and the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Williams is just one of a trio of running backs who power the ground game for the Blackhawks.
“We had a slow season,” Williams said. “All of our running backs didn’t get a lot of touches. Today the coaches prepared us for this, told us we were gonna get the ball. It was so much fun.”
Williams was a senior workhorse Friday, running 21 times for 148 yards as West Aurora opened the Class 8A playoffs with a 31-21 win over Huntley at Ormond Stadium’s Ken Zimmerman Field.
The Blackhawks (10-0) won their first playoff game since 2018 by running for 227 yards, advancing to play in the second round against the winner of Saturday’s matchup between Naperville North (7-2) and Maine South (6-3).
West Aurora clinched its first 10-win season since going 10-0 in 1946. The only other one was a 10-0-1 season in 1922.
“I can’t believe that,” Williams said. “West don’t talk much, but everybody doubts us.”
Williams entered Friday with 32 carries for 301 yards, ranking third on the team behind sophomore Bryce Riley (34 carries, 442 yards) and senior Azuriah Sylvester (37 carries, 426 yards).
“Azzie running up the middle, great as he was this year, really opened up the outside for me to do my work,” Williams said.
Williams also caught one pass for an 8-yard TD from junior quarterback Mason Atkins. Sylvester, who pulls double duty at safety, added 11 carries for 47 yards with TD runs of 1 and 22 yards.
Atkins completed 11 of 15 passes for 102 yards and two TDs, the other going 14 for yards to Iowa recruit Terrence Smith. Illinois State-bound senior kicker Casey Roney made a 20-yard field goal.
Smith, who only occasionally plays defense, was in the secondary in the final 90 seconds as Huntley (5-5) and senior quarterback Braylon Bower — who ran for 96 yards and threw for 203 — lofted a pass from West’s 23-yard line in a last-ditch drive.
Smith made a leaping grab for an interception in the end zone with 1:13 remaining.
“He doesn’t play defense much, but when he does, you saw it right there,” Williams said of Smith. “He got a pick in a big crunch-time moment. He’s gonna go places, too.”
Bower’s 2-yard TD run gave Huntley the lead at 3:09 of the first quarter, but West Aurora recovered two fumbles by the Red Raiders and won the turnover battle 3-0.
“Obviously, the question mark is, ‘West High hasn’t had a lot of challenges all season and would we step up?’” Eimer said. “I thought we got hit in the mouth and played really, really well.
“We did a nice job after the start.”
The Blackhawks hadn’t trailed in a game since the fourth week of the season, falling behind South Elgin 7-6 in an eventual 50-7 win.
“The thing about this group is the bulk of them played last year,” Eimer said. “They’ve been in some of these games, it’s just been a little while. I thought we hung in and played well.”
Sylvester understands there are doubters.
“We do have a chip on our shoulder,” Sylvester said. “I saw one (media) guy had said Huntley got the benefit of playing us in the first round.”
Williams said there was a purpose to the Blackhawks utilizing a no-huddle offense for much of the game.
“During film study, coach pointed out they like to change formations on defense,” Williams said. “We had to switch up the tempo, make it fast so they couldn’t really make the adjustments they wanted to make.”
Atkins said the Red Raiders spread out their defense to take away his early passing game.
“So we were just letting our guys feed,” Aktins said of his running backs. “I can hear Mike talking to himself when he gets going in a rhythm like that, just hyping himself up.
“Every time he got the ball he was going for positive yards, making big plays.”
