Glenbard West makes another win look easy
They played the Motown classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" after Saturday's Glenbard West-Fenwick football game - and certainly the visiting Friars lacked the tools to scale the Hilltoppers in this Class 7A second-round playoff contest.
Glenbard West ground Fenwick into the spongy turf at Duchon Field and finished as Kings of the Hill after a 56-14 victory, their 11th win without loss this season.
"Once again, our defense stepped up and kind of let our offense take control of the game," Glenbard West running back Bryant Venson said. "Our defense woke up and played awesome."
The win marks Glenbard West's first appearance in the third round since 1985. This year's third-round game takes place at Downers Grove North next weekend. The West Suburban Silver foes met in the seventh week of the regular season and Glenbard West won 35-0.
"We're trying to bring history back here from 25 years ago," Glenbard West defensive lineman Theo Odom said.
Turnovers were key for Glenbard West, which attacked from a short field for most of the contest. The Hilltoppers intercepted 3 passes and recovered a first-quarter Fenwick fumble in the end zone when the Friars seemed certain to score.
"I think we should have shut them out," Odom said. "I'm not trying to be cocky. But we had a pretty good time out there. We were flying around, getting to the ball."
And after some tricky moments in a wild second quarter, the Hilltoppers defenders made what adjustments they needed to and played shutout football in the second half.
That set the stage for the Hilltoppers' running game. Robert Cook ran for 112 yards on 12 carries, and Bryant Venson gained 104 yards on 7 carries. Overall, Glenbard West gained 295 rushing yards against the Friars (7-4), whose season ended Saturday.
"We knew that they were going to come out to play," Cook said. "We knew we had to match their intensity. I think that we came out on top for a reason."
The Hilltoppers survived a frantic finish to the opening quarter that featured five touchdowns in the final five minutes of play. Chris Cochrane ran in from 2 yards with exactly 5:00 left to put Glenbard West ahead. Venson then broke a 64-yard run on the first play of a Hilltoppers drive with 2:45 left that pushed the lead to 15-0.
That started the real scoring spree. Joe Musso caught a Joe Romano pass for a 67-yard score on the Friars' next play from scrimmage. Venson replied when he ran in the ensuing kickoff from 82 yards.
Following a Connor Loftus interception, Glenbard West quickly moved to score again, this time on 1-yard run by Tyler Warden. That made the score 29-7 heading into the second quarter.
Fenwick scored the only points of the second quarter, on a 9-yard Romano-to-Musso connection, but the Hilltoppers did all the scoring from that point. The second-half score was 27-0 in favor of Glenbard West.
"We knew we had to step it up in the second half and finish it out," Cook said.