Special teams put Glenbard South in position for win

The biggest key to Glenbard South's 41-0 victory over Ridgewood wasn't offense or defense. It was special teams.

Raiders punter Andre Steiger and kicker Jose Hernandez forced the Rebels to start play well into their own half a number of times.

On the flip side, the field position that Glenbard South had to start its offensive drives played a key part in putting up 6 touchdowns.

"Obviously, throwing a shutout on the board, I'm happy with our defensive play…," Raiders coach Jeremy Cordell said. "(Field position) was huge. Our punter had some monster punts tonight. So when you can punt a team deep and play defense and be three and out, that's a success."

For Ridgewood coach Chris Zack, a lack of accurate and deep punts gave the Raiders offense ample field positions, including a punt from the goal line that went just 18 yards. That led to Glenbard South's fourth touchdown of the game.

"It's huge. Their first three drives, I think, were on their plus side of the field," Zack said. "For us our starting average position was probably the 10- or 20-yard line backed up, so obviously it's huge. We had a couple drives where we got the ball moving and a miscue here and there and we end up punting."

Glenbard South was a bit slow to establish its offense, but once the running game started going, so did the Raiders.

A group effort from the running back corps led to four rushing touchdowns, each from a different player.

Junior Jimmy Ebbole, though a wide receiver, started the rushing points with a 6-yard touchdown in the first quarter. In the dying seconds of the second quarter, sophomore Sean Cooke punched in a 5-yard touchdown of his own.

Jake Straza got on the board with a 5-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter, on his second carry of the night, Arlen Garippo had a game-long 47-yard rushing touchdown.

"It was good for us to spread the ball around to different guys and get everyone touches," Cooke said. "It was really a team win. Defense got us good position, special teams, they didn't score. It was just a good, all-around team win."

Junior quarterback Kyle Carli also threw for 2 touchdowns. The first was a 47-yard touchdown pass to Javonis Hawkins in the third quarter. The second, after being tipped by a defender, was a 28-yard pass to junior Billy Bair in the fourth quarter.