The call was risky, but Naperville Central quarterback Jack Cook made sure it reaped a reward.

Four plays into the opening series on Friday, Redhawks coach Mike Ulreich decided to go for it on 4th-and-1 from their 32-yard line.

“It was a gutsy call, but we respect our O-line, and we know what our O-line is capable of,” Cook said. “So when we need that extra push, we know what to call. Just a QB sneak.”

Cook followed a block from junior center Connor Sands, who got help from senior guards Sean Fitzgerald and Liam O’Donnell, and gained 3 yards.

“It wasn’t really anything with the quarterback,” Cook said. “It was just the O-line pushing forward. It was a great job by them.”

Cook spent the next three quarters doing a great job of dicing up DeKalb’s defense, though. He completed 14 of 17 passes for 187 yards and three touchdowns as the host Redhawks clinched the DuPage Valley Conference championship and a playoff berth with a 42-0 victory at Memorial Stadium in Naperville.

It was the most efficient performance of Cook’s career, and it was sparked by that early sneak.

“That play was basically an ego booster,” he said.

So Cook was brimming with confidence three plays later when he hit wide-open senior receiver Christopher Bern in stride on a 44-yard touchdown pass.

“Once I saw the signal from our coach that we were going deep, me and Chris looked at each other and started laughing,” Cook said. “We know what is about to happen. Our chemistry is so great right now.”

Indeed, Bern caught four passes for 85 yards. The first two went for touchdowns, with Cook finding Bern on a 25-yard strike to complete Naperville Central’s fourth drive and make it 28-0.

“Me and Jack have been playing since sixth grade, so we have a lot of chemistry together,” Bern said. “Our timing is pretty much perfect, so it’s pretty cool to go out there and play with one of my best friends.”

The Redhawks (6-1, 4-0) scored on their four possessions. Junior running back Aiden Clark rushed 25 times for 189 yards, including touchdown runs of 2 yards and 85 yards.

While Naperville Central’s defense again shined, forcing the Barbs (2-5, 1-3) into four turnovers and recording its second shutout, the offense had its best outing.

“Week after week, we’ve been scoring more and more points,” Bern said. “It starts with the quarterback. He’s the guy commanding everyone on the offense and tells everyone what to do. He’s been doing a great job, and as you can see, our offense has been getting better every single week.”

Cook guided the Redhawks to touchdowns on five of the six drives he led. He was lifted shortly after tossing a 2-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Colton Lenz in the third quarter.

“The last couple weeks, we scored in the first half, but we still felt like we left points (out there), and so it felt good to be able to finish drives,” Ulreich said. “There was one drive at the very end that we didn’t finish in the first half, but we connected the ball downfield.”

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That’s something that was lacking early in the season.

“We wanted Jack to get better with his completion percentage,” Ulreich said. “The balls that we can get downfield, we want to be able to put them in a good place.”

Like Cook did on his first strike to Bern.

“Chris Bern is outstanding,” Ulreich said. “We saw some man-to-man cover zero, and we like our odds with Chris on anybody. Jack did a great job of delivering him the football.”

After his slow start, Cook has the offense humming.

“The first two or three games started off not the greatest,” he said. “But we are so confident right now that no matter where we are — we could be on our own 1-yard line — we’re going to drive down the field and score.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.