Glenbard East shakes off slow start, routs Bartlett in opening round of 7A playoffs
When Glenbard East and Bartlett both lost fumbles on their first possessions of their Class 7A opening-round game Friday in Lombard, it looked like the fans were in for that kind of game as the first edition of the expanded playoffs got underway.
Pretty soon, though, the teams settled in, and it quickly became apparent that the Rams (7-3) were the better team. They earned a 42-14 win over the Hawks (2-8) to advance to the first round next week at Kenwood.
“It’s hard to win high school football games,” said Glenbard East coach John Walters. “I’ve said that a million times. It’s virtually impossible to win high school football games.”
Walters then corrected himself, saying, “Well, it’s tough, not impossible.”
Bartlett actually got on the board first late in the first quarter. Parker Mulhall ran for a 2-yard touchdown on the same drive in which he connected with Quint’ion Wright on a 58-yard completion. That was the first pass completion for either team, and it also turned out to be Mulhall’s last until midway through the third quarter.
It was a much different story for Glenbard East quarterback Carter Pohlman. Channeling his predecessor in Michael Nee, he threw for 229 yards and four touchdowns on 17-of-22 passing.
Three scoring passes came in the first half, each to a different receiver: Mason Wright, Diamond Chew and Malachi Miller, the last of whom scored with 22 seconds left before halftime.
When Mulhall connected with Wright for a 45-yard touchdown with three minutes left in the third, Pohlman responded with his second touchdown pass to Chew from 32 yards out with no time left in the quarter.
“It was great to connect with a lot of different receivers, not just one,” Pohlman said. “And everyone did a great job, and I’m just thankful for my wide receivers. They played a heck of a game.”
Special teams came through for the Rams, too. On the second-half kickoff, Jaiden Javier got the ball and ran it 75 yards for a touchdown.
Bartlett got into Glenbard East territory during the fourth quarter but lost a fumble on fourth down and never threatened again.
Rams backup quarterback Connor LaCount capped the scoring on a fourth-down keeper and ran for a 15-yard touchdown with 1:33 to go.
Mulhall completed eight of 19 passes for 169 yards. The Hawks needed to win their final two games of the regular season for the program’s first playoff berth since 2021.
“They fought their butts off,” said Bartlett coach Milan Vuckovich. “I mean, to come in here, and to score first and then kind of have, almost basically should have been 14-7 at halftime, no one would have thought they could do that at 2-7. They thought they could.”