Glenbard South grounds Foreman
Back in the football playoffs after a brief absence, Glenbard South wanted to stick around a little while and enjoy it.
The Raiders were happy and relieved after Friday's 30-7 opening-round Class 6A victory against Foreman in Chicago. Mainly, they just felt better for the experience.
"A 'W' is a 'W' is a 'W.' We could have played a better ballgame," said second-year Raiders coach Jeremy Cordell, who earned his first victory but wasn't happy about his team's 5 fumbles, only 1 of which was lost. "We were sloppy at times. But we're excited about the 'W', and we're excited to go to the second round."
With senior quarterback Tyler Padera sidelined by a concussion suffered in Week 9, the Raiders (7-3) turned to sophomore Alex Jeske and did what they could to make his first playoff start easy.
"Our plan was just to run the ball a lot," senior offensive tackle Kyle Avaloy said. "Actually, we expected a whole different game plan for them, but we decided to flip the script around and go with the running game. Alex Jeske did a great job stepping in for Tyler Padera. He did a wonderful job, making plays, checking at the line of scrimmage. It was great."
"We really tried to focus on the run more, tried to shorten up the playbook to what he could do, and Alex did a great job," Cordell added. "Alex, for a sophomore, having to step in and control the offense, did a fantastic job. Our sloppiness tonight was not Alex's fault. It was our regular guys. Alex did a tremendous job."
Jeske led the Raiders to their first touchdown with 4:47 left in the first quarter, senior running back Wesley Sanders going in from 3 yards for a 6-0 lead.
The lead went to 8-0 early in the second quarter when Foreman (7-3) snapped the football over its punter's head and out of the end zone for a safety. The Raiders took advantage, going 52 yards in 4:31 to take a 16-0 lead on Jeske's quarterback sneak.
Foreman then fumbled the kickoff, turning the ball over on its own 22-yard line. Four plays later, Sanders went around left end into the corner of the end zone for a 22-0 lead.
"It snowballed a little bit," Hornets coach Peter Grazzini said. "We're young, we're inexperienced. We've got to find the weight room, we've got to work on our football IQ, but we'll get there."
Elven Walker added the Raiders' final touchdown in the third quarter, with Foreman breaking the shutout in the fourth on a 35-yard pass to Brandon Johnson from quarterback Sergio Serrano.
"We did a really good job on the offensive line," Avaloy said. "We want to get better as a unit. We feel like today we didn't do a great job but we plan on in the second round doing even a better job."
The Raiders play the winner of today's game between Marmion and Prairie Ridge, hosting Prairie Ridge for the second time this season if the Wolves win today. Prairie Ridge won that game 55-12 in August.
"We're a 10-times different team than we were in Week 1. We're really excited that we could actually get to redeem ourselves against Prairie Ridge," Avaloy said.