Behind Aaron Stewart’s 361-yard, 5-TD game, Warren overpowers Hersey

Warren junior Aaron Stewart figures to be tough to take down with his national championship wrestling background.

Hersey was able to pin down the 5-foot-8, 185-pound Stewart a bit early in their season-opening nonconference football showdown Friday night in Gurnee. But Stewart ultimately couldn’t be slowed as he rushed for 361 yards and five touchdowns on 30 carries and the Blue Devils scored 43 unanswered points in a 55-26 victory.

“That kid’s a phenomenal player,” Hersey coach Tom Nelson said after Stewart had 278 yards and all of his touchdowns to give Warren a 41-20 halftime lead.

“We just kept on battling them before they broke,” said Stewart, who is visiting wrestling powerhouse Oklahoma State today. “They broke before us. Our offense keeps pushing.”

The Blue Devils needed to so they could flip a 20-12 deficit after 14 minutes into a 41-20 lead 29 seconds before halftime. They had 415 of their 583 yards of total offense in the first 24 minutes and tied it at 20-20 when Justice Humphreys had a 3-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion run after an electrifying 84-yard run by Stewart.

Stewart’s 32-yard touchdown run put Warren up for good at 26-20. He also sandwiched touchdown runs of 60 and 11 yards around the first of 2 interceptions by Julian Vieux.

“He’s a workhorse and he gets better as the game goes on,” said Warren coach Brian McNulty, who wasn’t sure if Stewart set a school rushing record. “He’s a great weight room kid and it shows in what he does. He’s really resilient … and he’s a competitive runner.”

Hersey contained Stewart to 32 yards on his first 8 carries but they included touchdown runs of 3 and 8 yards. Quarterback Jack Wolf (9-for-11, 130 yards) threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Aydan Edwards (5 catches, 98 yards) and X’Zavion Montgomery had a 55-yard TD run in the fourth quarter behind the line of Matt Vasquez, Nate Duarte, Victor Drake, Jordan Ellis and Max Saucedo.

“They were hitting those guys,” Stewart said. “Our O-line did amazing today.”

Hersey showed it was ready for the challenging opener when Josh Riggs recovered an opening kickoff that Warren didn’t field and UCLA-bound quarterback Colton Gumino (245 total yards) capitalized with a 14-yard touchdown run on the third play. Brandon Jenkins (13 carries, 49 yards) had a 9-yard touchdown run for a 14-6 lead.

Hersey quarterback Colton Gumino carries the ball against Warren during the opening night of high school football on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024 in Gurnee. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com

Gumino was 6-for-6 passing when he hit Tyler Wentink with a beautiful 45-yard touchdown pass 9:58 before halftime. He finished 11-for-25 for 178 yards with 3 interceptions and Hersey didn’t score again until Ben Martin’s 45-yard run with 1:22 to play.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in us and we’ve got a great football team,” Nelson said. “But we have to execute more times than we did tonight. It’s a great opportunity to learn from and it’s going to make us better.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240830/prep-football/warren-junior-rumbles-for-361-yards-5-tds-as-blue-devils-crush-hersey-55-26/