Cassata, Stevenson roll past Glenbrook South

Last year, Joe Cassata spent most of the football season either blocking for Stevenson's star running back Mark Weisman or watching him from the sidelines.

Now that Weisman has graduated, Cassata is making the most of his chances to touch the ball. The 5-foot-10 senior ran for 266 yards on just 16 carries and scored 5 touchdowns Friday as Stevenson rolled past host Glenbrook South 42-20.

"I learned a lot from (Weisman) and now doing what he was doing, it's an honor," Cassata said.

Cassata first three touchdown runs - which covered 55, 60 and 69 yards - all came on the same play, where quarterback Kevin Earl fakes a handoff to fullback Nathan Kahn, then gives it to Cassata running through the same hole on the right side. Credit right guard Brandon Weber and tackle Michael Crowley for creating the room to run.

"We're really proud of our line and our tight end and our blocking upfront," Stevenson coach Bill McNamara said. "Once he found openings, Joey really took off tonight. He's a big, physical kid. He had a great offseason. He's our senior and it's his turn. He learned a lot from Weisman last year and now it's his turn to get his chances."

McNamara took over this year from Bill Mitz, becoming Stevenson's first new football coach in nearly 30 years. So far, the Patriots look like the same old offensive machine. In the first half, they ran just 15 offensive plays, but scored 4 touchdowns.

"Bill McNamara's a great guy," said Crowley. "He's been here for 20 years, so (the coaches) are about the same."

This game was close for a while. The Patriots (2-0) led 21-10 after Cassata's second long run and appeared to score another touchdown on a 53-yard pass from Earl to sophomore Anthony Bozin. But that score was nullified by a penalty and a few plays later, the Patriots gave up the ball on an errant punt snap.

Glenbrook South took advantage and closed within 21-17 with 5:01 left in the second quarter on a 15-yard screen pass from Matt Jenkins to John Strickland.

Two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Cassata burst through the right side for the 69-yard touchdown run and Stevenson led 28-20 at halftime. The Patriots' defense pitched a shutout in the second half, while Earl (7 for 10, 101 yards) found Stephen Salata for a 14-yard touchdown pass and Cassata added a 1-yard run.

Glenbrook South reached the Class 8A quarterfinals a year ago, but lost most of the starters from that team. The Titans fell to 0-2 after losing big last week to Minooka.

"We have to tackle better and we've been working on tackling since June," South coach Mike Noll said. "In high school football, good running backs are hard to tackle. We've just got to do better than that.

"We're not big and we're not particularly strong, either. We haven't had a great offseason program and you see a little bit of that in the first two weeks, but our kids are hanging in there. I think we got better tonight and I think we'll continue to get better."

For Glenbrook, Jenkins threw for 157 yards, while Max Pompilus had 8 receptions for 114 yards. Strickland ran for 89 yards on 20 carries.