Glenbard South loses in final second
In the end it would be either agony or ecstasy for the Glenbard South football team.
The 11tth-seeded Raiders trailed 28-27 with one second to play in the Class 5A playoff opener at No. 6 Hillcrest when coach Ryan Crissey gave the signal to go for a game-winning 2-point conversion.
It ended with agony as Hillcrest's Zion Perry broke through the Glenbard South line and sacked quarterback Jack Crouch to clinch the win for the Hawks (8-2).
"As soon as we got to the 15, I said we're going for it," Crissey said. "We're on the road, we don't want overtime, let's go for it. We were looking to hit Mike Paprota, but we didn't pick up their blitzing linebacker and the rest is history."
That blitzing linebacker, Perry, also had a feeling the Raiders would go for the glory.
"We knew they were going to try to score and get us out of the game," he said. "I just saw the gap, shot it and got to the quarterback."
If the Raiders (5-5) had converted the 2-pointer, it would have put an incredible exclamation point on a stunning comeback. Glenbard South trailed 28-14 with three minutes to play when Crouch started clicking with his receivers, hitting six passes on an 85-yard drive that culminated with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Peter Jeske with 49 seconds left.
Jeske then doubled down on the heroics by recovering the ensuing onside kick, which eventually led to Crouch's 14-yard TD toss to Paprota with one tick left.
The Raiders started the game well. They intercepted Hillcrest's James Lipscomb's four times in the first half, three by Graham DiFranco, while Talha Ayman blocked a pair of punts. But Glenbard South converted only one of those possible momentum-changers into points, Sean Cooke's 9-yard run for a 7-0 lead after one quarter, while the Raiders lost four fumbles themselves in the game.
"Our defense really kept us in the game, but it was difficult to get into an offensive rhythm," Crissey said.
Hillcrest came back to take an 8-7 halftime lead when Lipscomb's 24-yard pass to Nick Lindley set up the quarterback's 17-yard scoring run and Marcus Garret's conversion pass to Lindley for an 8-7 halftime lead.
Hillcrest chose to work into a 20-mph wind in the third quarter and the gamble paid off as the Hawks sandwiched a pair of TD runs from Dakari Smith in the frame around Cooke's second TD for a 20-14 lead after three quarters. With the wind the Hawks appeared to put the game out of reach when Lipscomb hit Garrett with a 27-yard score that made it a two-score game with less than 10 minutes to play.
"This is the most resilient group of kids I've coached in my 12 years at Glenbard South," Crissey said. "They always gave maximum effort, they always had fun; it's just a great group of kids."