Tinley Park ousts Glenbard South from football playoffs
The Tinley Park Titans came into Saturday's Class 5A second-round playoff football battle at Glenbard South with a running attack that had muscle.
The eighth-seeded team had just less than 2,900 yards total rushing yards going into the contest.
The Titans stumbled out of the gate with a poor first quarter that included two lost fumbles. But then the offense got going, and while the 16th-seeded Raiders stayed with the visitors, they could not find a solution to Tinley Park's offense and fell 42-32.
Raiders coach Ryan Crissey said teams that face the Titans' offense feel it.
"They are really physical up front and control the line of scrimmage," he said. "We tried to slow up their running backs."
Glenbard South (6-5) had Tinley Park (9-2) on the ropes early. On the opening kickoff Jimmy Ebbole went 93 yards for the Raiders' first TD of the day just 13 seconds into the game.
Just more than three minutes later, T.J. Springfloat broke free on a 51-yard scoring run and the Raiders led 12-0.
The Titans then got in gear. With 58 seconds left in the opening quarter, Titans quarterback Daniel McCullough found Garrett Maas just as he was entering the end zone with a Glenbard South defender trying to tackle him for a 28-yard TD pass.
"Glenbard South came ready to play. There weren't any changes or adjustments. We stuck to our game plan. Adversity is part of the game. We settled down and played football," said Tinley Park coach Nick Johnston, whose team faces St. Laurence in the quarterfinals next week.
The Raiders went up 18-7 on a 25-yard pass from quarterback Jack Crouch to Billy Bair, the first of Bair's 3 touchdowns on the afternoon.
Tinley Park next's two unanswered touchdowns came via a running game that rushed for 170 yards at halftime and 306 yards for the game. The Titans led at halftime 21-18.
With 5:33 left in the third quarter, the Titans' Lemont Brooks, who led all rushers with 163 yards, hit the end zone from 17 yards out and Tinley Park led 28-18 after three quarters.
Glenbard South pulled to within 28-25 on a Crouch-to-Bair 28-yard TD pass. Tinley Park then ran for two unanswered scores to go ahead 42-25.
The Raiders did not go away and, the third Crouch to Bair TD pass, this time for 18 yards, pulled the team to within 10 with 2:44 left in the game. Tinley Park recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
Despite the outcome Glenbard South will look back on a season that saw it make the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season and eight out of the last nine in Crissey's first fall as coach after a long tenure as an assistant.
"The senior leadership was crucial. It set the tone for a lot of the juniors and sophomores that play on the team. (The seniors') work ethic in the off-season and during the season was mirrored by the underclassmen," Crissey said.