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Alpuche, Reavis stop Rolling Meadows' playoff run

After watching game films of Reavis, Rolling Meadows football coach Matt Mishler knew who the Mustangs had to stop. That was senior quarterback Isiah Alpuche.

And true to form, Alpuche was a one-man wrecking crew.

But it took every once of his strength for the eighth seed Rams to hold off the No. 25 Mustangs 57-49 in the Class 7A first round playoffs Saturday night in Burbank 57-49.

Alpuche threw for 4 touchdowns on 18-of-24 passing for 383 of Reavis' 508 yards. Alpuche returned a kickoff 82 yards right after the Mustangs had scored on their opening drive, on Asher O'Hara's 21-yard pass to Luka Pavlakis.

"That was a mistake," said Mishler. "We didn't want him to handle the ball on their special teams. We saw how quick he was."

Alpuche recovered a fumble with :30 left in the first quarter and returned the ball 68 yards to give the Rams a 15-8 lead.

Later, Alpuche would score from the 4-yard line with :09 left in the first half to give Reavis a 43-29 lead at the break.

The second quarter was topsy-turvy, as 6 of the 7 touchdowns were scored in the first 5:50 of the quarter.

The Mustangs, led by the offensive line of David Murphy, Andrew Neville, Thomas Larson, Grant Palmer, and Jake Maloney, consistently battered Reavis' defense.

Rolling Meadows (6-4) piled up 620 yards of offense. The line gave O'Hara all the time he needed, and he responded with 5 touchdown passes while connecting on 19 of 28 passes for 410 yards.

Pavlakis caught passes of 21 and 7 for touchdowns and finished with 6 catches for 132 yards. Junior running back Nicholas Delporte caught one touchdown for 76 yards and rushed for 98 yards on 9 attempts, including a 67-yard touchdown run.

"We had a great week of practice," said Delporte. "The scout team really got us ready for this game. As the game turned out, it just didn't turn out the way we wanted it to end."

The Mustangs pulled to within the final score when O'Hara connected with Mike Dellorto on a 1-yard pass with 57 seconds left. Pavlakis, who played brilliantly in defeat, kicked the extra point.

But the Rams (9-1) were able to run out the clock.

"I hoped our effort tonight showed the underclassmen what it takes to be successful," said Pavlakis. "As freshmen and sophomores, we won 3 games. We worked hard. We had injuries through the year that hurt but we kept it together. Some players were able to come back and others didn't.

"I am just so proud of the other players and coaches in what we were able to do."

The Mustangs suffered a key loss on offense when junior running back Kevin Lacosse was injured at the end of the first quarter and did not return.

"They showed such great speed on film, " said Mishler. "They hurt us on the outside with their offense. We had not seen a team with this much speed all year. We struggled with their speed."

Reavis advances to a second-round matchup against Rockford Auburn.

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