Throw, catch 
of the day

STERLING – Between every offensive play, Drew Neubauer comes to the sideline.

Sterling coach Greg King relays the next play loud enough only for Neubauer’s ears and the players standing behind the coach on the sideline.

It amounts to a lot of “Give the ball to Corey Judd” or “to Chevy Bushaw” or “to Corey Hartz”.

As a quarterback in a Wing-T offense, that’s just the way it goes.

Then came third down-and-12 at the opponent’s 24-yard line late in the first half of Friday’s Class 5A first-round game against LaSalle-Peru at a muddy Roscoe Eades Stadium.

Neubauer came over, and King called his number.

“I heard some of the guys behind coach immediately start encouraging me,” Neubauer said.

“They were like, ‘You can do it, Drew’. I went into the huddle with a lot confidence.”

That swagger was clear as Neubauer dropped back and fired a pass toward the right sideline.

Dylan Eilers reached up, caught the pass, broke two tackles and stumbled into the end zone. The play made it seem like that should be more than Eilers’ fifth reception. It also seemed like Neubauer had completed more than 11 passes going into Friday night.

The numbers don’t seem right, but the play felt right.

“It was awesome,” Neubauer said. “It just felt so good to make a play like that for the team. We needed after starting kind of slow.”

“It all started with line giving Drew so much time,” Eilers said. “Then he made a great throw and I did everything I could to make the catch and keep going.”

The score, followed by Salomon Ocampo’s kick, gave Sterling its first lead at 7-6 with 22 seconds in the first half. The Warriors took that momentum and rode it the rest of the way.

“We knew we needed that play,” Eilers said. “The defense had made a big play to get us close to the end zone and we needed to capitalize on it.

“Scoring there turned the game around in our favor.”

Neubauer completed one more pass. In the third quarter, he made a hot read to Corey Judd on fourth down. Judd scampered 22 yards down to the 4-yard line.