Injuries pile up for Glenbard South

After a while Friday night in Glen Ellyn, Glenbard South just ran out of bodies.

Then the Raiders ran out of time.

Nazareth handed Glenbard South its second defeat of the season, 28-14.

"It's a tough loss, but you've got to come back next week ready to get rid of your mistakes and get better," Raiders defensive back Tyler Benware said. "Nobody likes to come out and lose a game. You've got to find the positives, correct the negatives."

There are some things the Raiders will find hard to correct, however.

"We're young, inexperienced and we're thin," said first-year coach Jeremy Cordell. "That is not a good combination."

Add in a bunch of injuries and it's clear to see how the Raiders (0-2) couldn't stay even with Nazareth in the second half after going into halftime tied at 14.

"The situation doesn't help us one bit, plugging in guys who haven't gotten a lot of reps," Cordell said.

"I think we had about four concussions tonight. We had a couple with an ankle, we had a knee. So we had about five or six starters who were out. So we were band-aiding all over the place."

The Raiders got off to a good start when Wesley Sanders broke loose for a 50-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Nazareth rebounded with touchdown runs by Rudy Romangnano and Joseph Yruegas to take a 14-6 lead, but two plays later Raiders sophomore running back Matt Loos scored on a 68-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Padera to tie the game with 1:08 to play in the second quarter.

"Matt Loos is a talented kid. He's going to have a good future for us," Cordell said. "Wesley's another kid who needs to step up for us, and he did a little bit tonight."

Romangnano gave the Roadrunners the lead for good with a 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and quarterback Matthew Behrendt added a matching 2-yard TD run in the fourth to put the game away.

"It's tough when the offense is looking good and then a couple of bad plays on defense and the score starts looking big," Benware said. "It's tough."

The Raiders will try again for their first win of the season next week when they host future Metro Suburban Conference rival Fenton.

"We've just got to tstay positive and get next week's victory," Cordell said.