Glenbard East forces OT, but Waubonsie Valley wins
Glenbard East didn't win Friday night's homecoming football game, but it sure made Waubonsie Valley awfully nervous.
The Rams scored 18 fourth-quarter points to force overtime, but Zach Bennema's 10-yard touchdown run and a blocked point-after touchdown kick gave Waubonsie Valley a 28-27 victory in Lombard.
Bennema called it the most exciting game he's ever played.
"Definitely, by far, the most exciting and not exciting," the senior quarterback said. "It was a mental battle, but we got through it. Definitely the most exciting win. The biggest game of our season so far."
"That's a great high school football game," Rams coach John Walters added. "You paid a couple of bucks to get in here. Ask yourself why you go to Soldier Field and some of the professional venues. You got a chance to see two good high school football teams battle it out for 48 minutes-plus. Yeah, great game."
Zach Walsh's 30-yard touchdown reception cut the Waubonsie Valley lead to 14-10 with 8:59 left in the game, but the Warriors (5-0, 3-0 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division) answered four plays later with fullback Ryan Berg's 43-yard TD run for a 21-10 lead.
But instead of going away, the Rams (3-2, 1-2) got going again.
Conor Glennon made his only reception of the night count for a 9-yard touchdown. Walsh caught the 2-point conversion from junior quarterback Philip Abruzino and the Rams were within a field goal with 2:56 to go.
Waubonsie Valley went three and out, giving the Rams the ball at their own 23-yard line. Abruzino right away hit Mitch Luttrell with a 67-yard pass to the Waubonsie 10-yard line, and a pass interference call gave the Rams first-and-goal at the 5. But three incompletions forced a Jack Difino 22-yard field goal, his second field goal of the game, with 29.3 seconds to go.
"Honestly I was just happy we got in overtime to be honest after they hit that pass," Bennema said of Glennon's reception. "I was getting real nervous. Our defense made a great stand down there, held them to four plays. They kept attacking our right corner, Josh Scudder, and he stepped up. He stepped up. We were happy to get out of there just getting into overtime."
"He's a junior," Walters said of Abruzino. "Drake (Pusateri), our starting quarterback, is beat up. We tried to play him a little bit tonight. He's been out for two weeks. Phil's a competitor, and he's quiet and he goes out and he leads. And guys follow him. He's got that big thing that you want all quarterbacks to have."
Bennema scored on the first play of overtime with his 10-yard run.
"I knew I had to step up. All night I wasn't being as decisive as I wanted to be," he said. "I was kind of floating to the sideline, not north-south. I knew that one I had to step up."
The Rams scored on Walsh's fourth-down 3-yard TD catch, but the Warriors blocked the PAT to end the game.
"They had a 3-1 record for a reason, and we told our kids that all week," Warriors coach Paul Murphy said. "They're not 3-1 because they're playing Little Sisters of the Poor. They're 3-1 because they're a good football team, and they showed that tonight.
"...They made us play defensively on defense and on offense, which we're going to fix."
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