Glenbard South rout turns into a thriller
Considering all the ups and downs Vernon Hills and Glenbard South went through Saturday afternoon in Glen Ellyn, they should be dizzy for weeks.
Glenbard South will only have one week to recover from dizzyness and injuries, however, after hanging on to defeat Vernon Hills 33-27 in a Class 5A second-round playoff game it once led 33-0.
"I don't want the kids to have the feeling of a loss because it was a win," Raiders coach Dan Starkey said. "It wasn't a great win, but it was a good win. And when you advance to the quarterfinals two years in a row, that's pretty darn awesome, so they've got to be proud of themselves, and as coaches we're proud of their efforts to battle through and pull this one out in the face of some injuries."
Glenbard South got off to another great start, with Nick Slezak intercepting a Cougars pass, and senior quarterback Trace Wanless running 6 yards for a touchdown on the very next play.
"You can't do that," said Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken said of the Cougars' 4 turnovers. "You can't do that in the playoffs. But what a great effort by our kids to come back and scratch and claw and fight like crazy to even make it close. They're a very good ballclub and we made too many mistakes against them."
Sixth-seeded Vernon Hills (8-3) fumbled on its third offensive play from scrimmage, and the No. 3 Raiders (9-2) marched downfield, with Wanless scoring again from a yard out.
"When our defense plays like that - an interception and a fumble - that sets up two easy scores," Wanless said. "Vernon Hills is a really good team, and we wanted to prove that we're the best 5A team."
Connor Douglas added a 41-yard touchdown run, and Wanless scored again from 11 yards to make it 27-0 midway through the second quarter, but he strained his Achilles' heel on the play.
"No. 17, he's a great quarterback, just like Tim Tebow on offense," Vernon Hills quarterback/receiver/safety DaVaris Daniels said. "But when he went out, I think that slowed the offense down a little bit. They couldn't do some of the things they normally do, and that gave our defense a little bit of relaxation. We came out and started firing."
Glenbard South got one last touchdown after a Douglas interception, Slezak scoring from 2 yards out. The next four touchdowns went the Cougars' way, however.
Daniels scored from a yard out to make it 33-8 at halftime. Evan Spencer's 21-yard run cut the lead to 19 points late in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Glenbard South's offense went stagnant with Wanless on crutches and out of uniform.
"It made a big difference for us, but we knew they were a good defense and they really shut us down in the second half," Starkey said. "But Trace is a special player. He just opens so many things up for us with the run and the pass. So we were just a little one-dimensional, I guess, without him."
A Daniels 2-yard TD run brought Vernon Hills within 13 points with 9:20 to play, but Vernon Hills suffered another turnover, an interception by Raiders junior Tyler Benware, and stalled on its next possession when defensive lineman Pat Childs knocked down a fourth-down screen pass as Wanless made a Willis Reed-like return to the sideline in uniform and ran down the sideline to test his leg.
"We lost some players during the middle of the game and that really hurt us," said Childs, who added 2 sacks, "but we did a good job of sticking with it and pulling out the win."
The Cougars scored one final time, with 35 seconds left, on another Daniels 2-yard run.
"You've got to have your playmakers make plays to win a playoff game, and he allowed us to get back in the game," Monken said of Daniels. "Evan had a great game. Defensively, we were a completely different team the second half."
The ensuing onside kick went out of bounds, and Wanless re-entered the game to kneel for the final two snaps, running out the clock on the Cougars' season.
"As of right now I'm going to play," Wanless said of next week's quarterfinal against the Woodstock/Lakes winner. "I can't have that be my last game. I was getting kind of worried there."
"I wasn't surprised," Starkey said of seeing Wanless back in uniform. "I didn't want him to go in. I tried holding some of our two-way players out. I was hoping we didn't have to get him back in there. But that just shows the type of kids they are. They want to play when the game is on the line. Unfortunately, it got back on the line. We wish it hadn't have."