Glenbard South figures out R-B

Class 6A football teams don't have to worry anymore about trying to figure out how to defend Riverside-Brookfield's gimmicky A-11 offense.

The Raiders did that for them Friday night in Glen Ellyn.

Class 6A teams still have to figure out how to stop the Glenbard South offense, though.

The Raiders tore through the R-B defense for a 48-31 first-round playoff victory, scoring 6 of their 7 touchdowns on drives of 5 plays or fewer and punting only once, when the second-team offense was in the game.

"Our offense is amazing. ... We've got a lot of playmakers and we've got a lot of speed," defensive back Ryan McKean said.

"Against R-B I was hoping for a little more lengthy drives, to be honest, but yeah, I was just happy we put points on the board," added Raiders coach Dan Starkey.

The Raiders got big plays by the bunches. Junior Nick Slezak ripped off scoring runs of 31, 8 and 31 yards on end arounds. Running back Curtis Ford had touchdown runs of 15, 54 and 25 yards.

"We put in a couple of new plays," Slezak said. "The blocking was just excellent. The linemen did their assignments perfect. Curtis Ford had a great game like he always does."

The biggest play probably came on defense at the start of the third quarter. R-B recovered an onside kickoff and drove to the 8-yard line. A Kevin Marshall sack knocked the Bulldogs back to the 15, and two incomplete passes later, No. 11 seed R-B (6-4) had to settle for a field goal.

"The way we came out defensively to hold them to a field goal after the onside kick was big," Starkey said.

Before the Bulldogs knew what hit them, Glenbard South (8-2), the sixth seed, had scored 4 touchdowns to take a 41-17 lead.

"That's a pretty good football team right there," R-B coach Otto Zeman said before walking over to the Raiders' postgame huddle to congratulate them and wish them luck. "That wasn't a bargain draw. There's other football teams I'd rather play than those guys."

The Bulldogs' A-11 offense, in which all 11 players are eligible to receive passes, confused the Raiders at first.

"That offense was harder than we thought it would be," McKean said. "They really executed well.

"They were beating us short on the swing pass and the short stuff, so we brought a few different guys up and started getting off blocks a little bit better on the short stuff. And then we forced them to throw the long ball."

Bulldogs quarterback Bill VandeMerkt completed 52 of 74 passes for 454 yards. McKean, Connor Douglas and Dan Parks each intercepted a Bulldogs pass.

"We knew we had to outscore them to beat them," Zeman said. "They did a nice job defending us."

"It sure is scary playing an offense like that," Starkey said. "It's tough to defend. Their quarterback made some good throws. They got the ball off on time. I think overall our defense made some adjustments and we were able to get after them and change things up a little bit in the third quarter. Then our offense took over, offensive line especially."

The Raiders will play the winner of tonight's game between No. 14 Oak Lawn and No. 3 Hubbard on the road next week.