Glenbard South scores early and often in rout
If there's such a thing as scoring too fast, Glenbard South did it Saturday afternoon in Carol Stream.
On the Raiders' first play from scrimmage, quarterback Trace Wanless ran 53 yards up the middle for a touchdown. On their second offensive play Wanless handed off to Connor Douglas on an end around, and Douglas ran 21 yards for a touchdown.
Glenbard South slowed down after that, but only slightly, routing Western Sun Conference rival Rochelle 35-14 in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.
"I yelled at our offensive coaches, I said, 'We're scoring too fast. Can you score more slowly?'" Raiders coach Dan Starkey joked. "Because we were right back out on the field defensively.
"We definitely take the points anytime, but Rochelle is pretty good at what they do."
The game was played on Glenbard North's artificial turf due to poor field conditions at Glenbard South.
"We wanted to come out and we wanted to show it to them," Wanless said. "... We wanted to use our speed on the turf. That's a help for us. Connor's very fast. Our line did a great job, and so did (running back John Hentges), just blocking and opening up holes."
"(The turf) helped us out a ton, because you have stability under your foot when you try to plant to throw or make a cut," Starkey added. "I think it was just much better for both teams to play on a consistent surface rather than play in the mud, which our field would have been. We had a hard time practicing all week because of it."
Wanless added an 11-yard TD run and a 4-yard scoring pass to fullback Austin Teitsma to give the Raiders a 28-8 halftime lead. The senior quarterback connected with Douglas on a 29-yard pass in the third quarter to bump the lead to 35-8.
The Raiders defense was just as good as the offense, holding Rochelle's power running game in check much of the afternoon and twice stopping the Hubs inside the Raiders' 10-yard line. Senior linebacker Nick Slezak was in on 19 tackles, and senior linebacker Brian Duffy intercepted one of the few passes Rochelle (5-5) tried.
"Since we played them a couple of weeks ago (another Raiders win in Week 8), we were pretty familiar with what they were going to run," Slezak said. "They have big, strong backs. We knew we had to take them out, so we put another man on the line and that really helped us out this week."
"He's all over the field," Starkey said of Slezak, who also plays receiver. "Both phases of the game, offensively and defensively. He's a special player. He gets to the ball fast. He's very smart defensively and reads guards well. He's just a big key to what we do."
Next week the third-seeded Raiders (8-2) will host Vernon Hills at a site to be determined. The No. 6 seed, Vernon Hills defeated Brooks Academy 48-0 Saturday.
"Hopefully, we have four more (wins)," Wanless said. "Vernon Hills is a very good team. We don't know much about them. We lost to Antioch (in last year's state quarterfinals), and they're in their conference, so we want to take it to them and redeem ourselves."