NAPERVILLE – Joe Ippolito and the Neuqua Valley Wildcats were left to ponder how differently the 2009 campaign could have gone if they had turned in results like the one they had in the season finale against Elgin.

The Wildcats dominated the Maroons 28-0 on Friday night to claim the first meeting between these two Upstate Eight Conference foes since 2004.

"We were just trying to have fun and we put it all together tonight," said Ippolito, who rushed 25 times for 152 yards and had three rushing touchdowns. "This is how it could have been all year, but obviously it wasn't."

The game was played on a sloppy and muddy field, which created footing issues for players on both sides.

Neuqua dominated every facet of the game. The Wildcats limited the Maroons to minus-22 yards rushing and 11 total yards.

"I thought they handled us pretty well," Elgin coach Dave Bierman said. "Inside, outside and throwing there was not much there for us tonight. Up front they did a really nice job. We couldn't get the passing game going to get them off of our backs because they had a lot of guys up in the box and we thought we could beat them on the edge, but we couldn't do that either."

Ippolito scored on runs of 6 and 9 yards to give the Wildcats a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.

However, the Wildcats (3-6, 3-3) kept the Maroons (3-6, 3-3) in the game thanks to four turnovers.

Elgin had its best chance to cut into Neuqua's 14-point lead when Hector Hernandez pounced on a Neuqua fumble at the Wildcats' 18 in the early stages of the third quarter.

But, the Elgin offense went backward.

Quarterback Jake Meyer, who spent most of the night with little to no time to pass, misfired on a first-down pass. Running back Jordan Dean lost 10 yards on second down. A third-down pass from Meyer to Dean went for two yards and receiver Tim Newcombe dropped a potential big gainer on fourth down.

"If you don't sustain drives offensively, then you put your defense in bad situations a lot," Bierman said. "When we had chances to make some things happen we were unable to capitalize. We needed that spark to get things going and we weren't able to do that. The kids played hard and that is all we can ask for."

Dean finished with 12 carriers for minus-5 yards while Meyer completed 5 of 17 passes for 33 yards.

Ippolito added a 33-yard scoring run late in the third quarter while teammate Robert Herzberger capped the scoring with a 9-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, Neuqua linebacker T.J. Rhattigan was credited with three sacks.

"Throughout the season a couple plays here and there we could have executed better and maybe some games could have gone our way, but it just didn't happen this season," Ippolito said.