Chase Culbertson has been going to Friday night football games at Hinsdale Central's Dickinson Field practically his entire life. He lives just four blocks away and remembers sitting in the bleachers watching past Red Devil greats like Mike Mangan and Brad Bower play there.

He knew that Friday's game could be his last one under the lights on his home field.

Culbertson, a senior outside linebacker, and his defensive teammates made it a night to remember by recording their first shutout of the season and holding Proviso West to just four first downs as Hinsdale Central remained tied for the lead in the West Suburban Conference Silver Division and clinched a playoff spot with a 38-0 victory on Senior Night.

"It probably won't be our last home game on this field, but it could be our last Friday night game because playoffs are usually on Saturdays and there is something really special about Friday night games," Culbertson said. "I tried to soak it in as much as I could. We played really well, played very fired up."

What makes Friday night so special?

"The whole environment," Culbertson said. "The whole community comes out to watch. I've been watching Friday night games here just forever. It's got real sentimental value to come out under these lights on this field. It's really important to all of us."

The defense gave the Hinsdale Central offense great field position the entire game, allowing only one first down before halftime. The Red Devils (6-2, 4-1 in Silver) started five of six first-half drives in Proviso West (1-7, 1-5) territory.

The offense took advantage.

Sophomore quarterback John Whitelaw turned in another stellar performance by running for two touchdowns and throwing for two more, but was quick to praise the defense.

"The defense played great," Whitelaw said. "That opened up everything for us. The defense really stepped up."

It only took the Red Devils six plays to march 46 yards for a touchdown on their first possession. Whitelaw executed a nifty fake and then scampered around right end for a 21-yard touchdown TD run.

Whitelaw also scored on a 5-yard TD run following a 33-yard field goal by Todd Klepacki as the Red Devils built a 17-0 lead after one quarter.

In the second quarter, Whitelaw fired two TD passes of 15 yards to Davis Kalsbeek and 10 to Troy Laing for a 31-0 halftime lead.

Billy Auriemma completed the scoring with a 4-yard run in the third quarter.

The Red Devils employed a two-back offense more Friday than in any other game this season as junior running back Eric Alexander joined Auriemma alongside Whitelaw in the backfield on most plays. Alexander ran for 77 yards on 14 carries in his most extensive playing time of the season and impressed Hinsdale Central coach Mike DiMatteo.

"Progressively every week he's gotten better," said DiMatteo. "We'll be seeing more of Eric because he's a talented kid."

The defense completely throttled Proviso West's no-huddle, spread offense. Defensive coordinator Tom Dorrance had his team disguise their defensive alignments lining up one way until the play was called and then shifting into another alignment just before the snap.

"We knew that they call their plays at the line," Culbertson said. "We would line up in the same formation every time so that they wouldn't know what formation we would go into and then when they were about to snap the ball we would go into the formation that we called."

Gang tackling did the rest.

"We made sure we contained their speed because we knew that they were going to be fast," Culbertson said. "We made sure we kept the outside contain and we knew we had to hit hard because if we hit hard and buried these guys in the first half, the first quarter, the game would be ours."

The defense really wanted the shutout and Proviso West never threatened, only advancing the ball into Hinsdale Central territory twice.

And the Red Devils achieved another goal, getting everybody on the team into the game, including reserves such as 5-4, 115 pound senior Grant Goss and senior lineman Izzat Maali.

"I think that speaks a lot about our players and their attitudes and that they're a team," DiMatteo said.

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