Hilltoppers leave Huskies high and dry

Rain flooded out Saturday's West Suburban Silver Conference football opener between Oak Park and Glenbard West at Duchon Field.

On Monday came the undertow.

At hospitable and dry Wheaton College, the Hilltoppers swamped Oak Park 54-14, scoring 48 straight points after Oak Park breezed downfield on the game's first possession.

"We just kept going and going," said Glenbard West running back Bryan Venson. "Coach (Chad Hetlet) tells us how well we handle adversity. We handled it pretty well today."

In a game Glenbard West (3-0, 1-0) dedicated to co-captain Marty Detmer, the two-year starting lineman out probably the rest of his senior season with a broken leg, the Hilltoppers got 2 touchdowns apiece from receiver Jessie Condie and back Adam Bruere, and solo scores from backs Venson and Matt Hassan, and Tyler Warden, who shared quarterback duty with Chris Cochrane.

Initially, coach Jim Nudera's young Oak Park Huskies (1-2, 0-1) flew downfield like one of the college teams that plays at McCully Stadium. Starting at his own 20-yard line, quarterback Elliott Davidson completed 6 of 7 passes to set up James Cole's 22-yard touchdown run.

Then the wheels came off. Or Glenbard West flattened them.

"That defense was really fast," Davidson said.

So is Condie. On Glenbard West's first play from scrimmage he blew down the right sideline to score on a 60-yard Cochrane pass.

"We were going to run that play from the start," said Condie, who later scored on a 19-yard Cochrane pass.

Linebacker Garrett Richards' interception set up a 2-play drive capped by Venson's 56-yard touchdown run, then Kyle Krumwiede's interception on Oak Park's next series led to the first of Bruere's two 4-yard scoring bursts.

"I knew that we could stop them," Richards said. "Once we got our feet set we just shut them down on all aspects."

A bad Oak Park punt snap nearly gave Glenbard West a safety. Instead Warden sneaked 1 yard for a 27-7 Hilltoppers lead at 9:41 of the second quarter.

Two more scores before the half - making it 6 in 7 possessions - gave Glenbard West a 41-7 halftime lead.

"We got a short field," Hetlet said. "We took advantage of a couple plays. We were close to penalty free and we've been plagued by penalties on offense all year so it was nice to see our offense explode a little bit. But it was set up by the defense, certainly."