Glenbard South offense picks up the pace

Glenbard South figured Saturday was a good day to break out the hurry-up offense.

The Raiders scored at a pace to match the offense’s tempo, taking a 38-14 nonconference football victory at Rich East in Park Forest.

“We had a nice week in practice preparing with it and we thought we’d give it a shot,” Raiders coach Jeremy Cordell said. “It was a nice game to start off with it and roll with it.”

“We just came out firing, set up in the hurry-up offense, and from there things just got started,” added junior quarterback Alex Jeske. “We were making big plays. We just had a lot of confidence.”

Jeske had the most success picking out receiver Clark Gary, finding Gary for 11 receptions and 189 yards on the day, plus 2 touchdowns. Jeske finished 21 of 30 for 302 yards and 3 TDs, including a 13-yard pass to Matt Loos for the Raiders’ final score of the day shortly before halftime.

“He was just running very good routes, finding the holes in the defense,” Jeske said of Gary, also a junior. “I was able to hit him, and he made some very good catches.

“He found the open seams and made plays with some cutbacks,” Cordell added, “just found some open grass and used his speed to his advantage.”

Jeske praised the offensive line for keeping him vertical, and it did well for the running game also, where the Raiders totaled 145 yards, Zach Smith, yet another junior, added a pair of rushing touchdowns.

“I thought we came out and executed pretty well,” Rich East coach Barry Reade. “Them getting a couple of scores and us turning the ball over at the end of the first half really set the tone. In the passing game they were explosive and hitting a lot of seams on us. They executed pretty well. We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times.”

The Raiders forced 4 Rich East fumbles and recovered 3 of them.

“The defense did a great job for us,” Jeske said. “In the middle of the game getting some three-and-outs, some fumble recoveries, letting our offense get back on the field and score.”

“Our kids came out very prepared,” Cordell said. “They came out and played a great first half, both offensively and defensively.”

The Raiders are 2-1 this season heading into next Friday’s home game against Crete-Monee, the top-ranked team in Class 6A.

“We just gotta keep things going,” Jeske said. “Can’t take steps back, we have to keep moving forward.”