Glenbard South runs hoops around East Aurora
Leave it to a bunch of basketball players to turn a football game into a track meet.
Nick Plaso, Tavion Keith, Antonio Carter, Cade Hardtke, Noah Gibson and Miles Horton spend the winter hooping it up for Glenbard South.
They spent Friday night putting a whipping on East Aurora.
Plaso fired 4 touchdown passes, 3 of them to Keith and the other to Hardtke, while Carter rushed for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Raiders won 42-13 in Upstate Eight Conference action in Glen Ellyn.
Gibson and Horton had interceptions for Glenbard South (3-1, 3-1), which scored the first 21 points and never looked back.
"We did some work on it in practice, so it felt good to come out here and actually execute the game plan," Plaso said. "We've been practicing all summer for this and it finally paid off."
Carter opened the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run and later scored from 12 yards out, racking up 92 yards on 17 carries in the first half.
That opened up the passing game for Plaso, who completed 21 of 29 passes for 233 yards, including scoring strikes of 23, 66 and 14 yards to Keith and a 14-yarder to Hardtke.
It was the first three receiving touchdowns of the year for the 5-foot-8, 140-pound Keith, who caught 12 balls for 177 yards.
"It felt good tonight," Keith said. "I just wanted to come out and have a big game.
"My shoulder was a little bit injured, but I wanted to come out and play for my teammates and get a win."
Keith's shoulder was sporting an ice pack after the game, but his broad smile reflected how good the Raiders were feeling about their performance, especially on offense, where they amassed 456 yards.
"We're excited for it," Plaso said. "We just look at the defense and how they're aligned and we count numbers.
"Football is a numbers game to us. If we have the numbers in the box, we're going to run it and if the box is stacked, we're going to throw it. We just make the best decision we can."
Jereye Stevenson and Orlando Garcia scored 13-yard touchdown runs for East Aurora (0-4, 0-4), which had the size but not the pace to keep up with the Raiders.
"It was a lot of fun," Glenbard South coach Ryan Crissey said. "Our offensive line executed very well today, so I was very pleased with their performance and our defense was physical."