Glenbard South 25, Rochelle 20
As Glenbard South quarterback Kevin Marshall raced away from Rochelle's hard-charging defenders on a second and long play late in the fourth quarter, he was running out of options to deliver the Raiders from a tough-luck loss to the ball-controlling Hubs.
Fortunately, he spotted the teammate who has a knack for delivering in a time of need.
Marshall, pulling up just short of the line scrimmage at the Rochelle 46-yard line, launched an 8-yard shovel pass to Mike Oratowski along the left sideline. Oratowski crossed the field, outrunning the Hubs secondary into the right side of the end zone and, ultimately, his Raiders into the IHSA playoffs.
Oratowski's fourth touchdown of the game at the 2:03 mark of the fourth quarter gave Glenbard South (6-2, 4-2 Western Sun Conference) a 25-20 lead that proved to be the game-winner.
"I wasn't even in the pattern," Oratowski said after the game. "But then Kevin started rolling my way and I was out there waving my arms. He made a very athletic play to get me the ball."
Oratowski finished with 98 yards rushing on 13 carries. In addition to his 46-yard TD reception, he had touchdown runs of 51, 5 and 10 yards.
"He plays with so much heart," Raiders coach Dan Starkey said. "No. 34 is a great player to have on the field."
Oratowski's 10-yard TD run with 6:08 to play brought Glenbard South to within 20-19 in a second half dominated by a Hubs offense that had held the ball for 15 of the 18 minutes played. The Raiders' point after off a high snap was blocked preserving Rochelle's narrow lead.
But the Raiders' defense stepped up to the challenge, holding the Hubs offense that rushed for 217 yards on the night to a three-and-out. Greg Calabrese, Will Hill and Austin Teitsma combined to stuff Rochelle running back Dan Ruppenthal for a 1-yard loss on a third-and-4, forcing the Hubs to punt from their own 26 and setting up the heroics of Marshall and Oratowski.
"We needed to make a couple more plays and we just didn't do it," Rochelle coach Kevin Crandall said.
Rochelle (5-3, 3-3) erased Glenbard South's 13-8 halftime lead with 11-play, 65-yard and 16-play, 80-yard drives on successive possessions. Following a 3-yard run by Rochelle's Devan Mancillas, the Raiders' Jake Glocker came up with a stop on Rosendo Garcia's conversion attempt that kept Glenbard South within striking distance at 20-13 with seven minutes left.
The Raiders travel to Sycamore to close out the regular season next Friday.
"Our goal was to make the playoffs," Oratowski said. "Now with a win we are after home-field advantage."