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South Elgin battles past Glenbard East

South Elgin football coach Patrik Pistorio entered Saturday's game against Glenbard East with a theme of “Next Man Up” in his quarterback rotation of Hayden Nelson and Jacob Amrhein.

If one didn't lead the Storm to a touchdown during his series the other got his chance next time out.

After Amrhein got creamed on the second play of the second quarter, Glenbard East leading 14-0, Nelson manned up to pass for 404 yards and 5 touchdowns in the Storm's 42-36 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division win on senior day in South Elgin.

Starting with a 38-yard touchdown to Nick Menken on Nelson's first pass after Amrhein left injured and ending with the game-winning 28-yard touchdown strike to Menken with 1:12 left to play, Nelson — and 6 Glenbard East turnovers — got South Elgin one win closer to playoff qualification. The Storm (4-3, 3-2) dropped Glenbard East to 3-4, 1-4.

“I just came back out, I just tried to lead the team to victory, that's all I was trying to do. I was just trying to manage the game for us, that's all,” Nelson said.

Game managers rarely pull such stats. Menken caught 7 passes for 128 yards, 4 touchdowns, Derek Kumerow 9 for 197 yards, 2 touchdowns. Andrew Kamienski added 78 yards receiving and threw a 20-yard scoring strike to Menken on a wide-open double-pass from Nelson.

“It's like a dream,” Menken said. “All of us seniors, we work so hard. We had a great week of practice, we came out this week and we said our season's on the line, we have to win. The seniors stepped up and the juniors followed us, and thank God we got the win today.”

It went down to the wire. The Kamienski-to-Menken touchdown gave South Elgin a 35-29 lead with 6:29 left, then Glenbard East's Karon Keyes earned great field position with a 33-yard kickoff return.

Quarterback Phil Abruzino got the Rams to the 4-yard line on a 13-yard pass to Zach Walsh and Dominic Wilberton, who ran for 158 yards and 3 touchdowns, burrowed in behind 300-pound right guard Ben Sullivan for the score. Jack Difino's kick gave the Rams a 36-35 led with 3:44 to go.

“I think it was a great ballgame,” Wilberton said, “but we didn't get the win.”

An apparent 55-yard touchdown run by South Elgin's Kyle Ware was negated by penalty, but Nelson completed 4 of 5 passes to score and Nick Farfan's kick provided the final margin.

Abruzino, 18-of-34 for 288 yards, drove Glenbard East 55 yards to the Storm 25-yard line with 8 seconds left. South Elgin's Brandon Soto stepped in front of a deep crossing route for his second interception of the day to stop the threat and ice the win.

“I was very, very relieved. Very, very relieved,” Nelson said.

Counting a 29-yard pass to Keyes that looked like a touchdown but was ruled to have been fumbled out of the end zone before he crossed the goal line, Glenbard East committed 6 turnovers on top of 7 last week.

“You can't play varsity football and turn the ball over that many times in the last two weeks,” said Rams coach John Walters. “It bit us a little bit today. But for both games ... we're right in the ballgame at the end of the game. Our kids continue to fight. I'm proud of them, I'm proud of their effort. We've got to find a way to get over the hump.”

Images: South Elgin vs. Glenbard East football

  South Elgin's Joey Rohde and Brandon Soto lay a hit on Glenbard East's Dominic Wilberton Saturday. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
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