Chicago-Area High School Football News and Scores | Season Pass

Brian Casey firmly believes his guys won’t be fooled again.

Aurora Central football players know they’re overwhelming favorites heading into Friday’s home game against Guerin, acknowledges the Charger coach. With all the information that’s available to them, how could they not, he wonders.

ACC (5-1, 3-1) has outscored its opponents 193-86, become playoff eligible for the first time since 1997 and can lock up that postseason berth with one more win. Guerin (1-5, 0-4) has been outscored 262-43, including 200-0 in its current four-game losing streak.

“You can go in knowing and believing you are better,” Casey has told his players, but he’s also stressed they need to prove it.

In a similar situation last year, “we expected to show up and win,” he said.

Guerin upset them 18-15.

“That’s the biggest difference between this year’s team and last year,” said Casey. “This group is enjoying proving (they belong in the playoffs) and not in a subtle way. It’s evident by some of our scores. These guys don’t want to score just once or twice.

“We’ve had two days of focused practices this week. Our biggest strength is we’ve got a lot of guys with experience who went through this last year, were there when we choked down the stretch. They have a chance to right that problem and put a close to that chapter and make amends.”

Casey said Guerin will throw the ball much more than many of the teams his club has faced, as much as 65 percent of the time, but he thinks his secondary is looking forward to having a bigger role.

“Chicago Christian threw the ball a little more than most and gave us problems early but they were more of a (Riverside-Brookfield) Otto Zeman style where they get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands in two seconds,” Casey said. “Guerin is not nearly as fluid and takes more time letting the play develop.”

The Chargers hope it allows them time to get to the quarterback.

ACC’s lead running back Steve Amoni, who left last week’s win over Walther Lutheran early with an ankle injury, is expected to return to action this week. Brian Bohr (127 yards) and Julian Rios (114) picked up the slack.