Oles-to-Lamm a grand slam for Palatine
Thanksgiving is a couple weeks away yet, but Palatine's Zach Oles and Matt Lamm got a head start on their carving Saturday afternoon in Oak Park.
The duo combined for 148 yards and 4 touchdowns as Palatine baked the host Huskies 41-26 and advanced to the Class 8A state quarterfinals for the first time in four years.
No. 13-seeded Palatine (9-2) will host No. 3 Brother Rice on Saturday. Game time for their matchup will be made official Monday.
"Offensively, we were unbelievable," Palatine coach Rick Splitt said. "That is a good defense over there. But Lamm and Oles came through huge when we needed them to."
The pair was unstoppable, especially in the second quarter, when they hooked up for 3 touchdowns, including one with less than four seconds left in the half.
"Zach put it where it needed to be," Lamm said. "I just stepped up and made some plays. People talk about how small we are, but we just have the most heart and that is all that matters."
It was actually the Pirates' size advantage against the smaller but athletic Oak Park defensive backs that was a huge difference.
Oles (15-for-26 for 265 yards) was able to take advantage of that difference, not only connecting with the 6-foot-2 Lamm but also finding 6-2 Johnny O'Shea and 6-3 Jack Grochowski.
"It was a lot of fun," Oles said. "We knew they had the speed on us in the defensive backfield. But we had the height and the weight and we took advantage of it."
No. 3-seeded Oak Park (9-2) took an early 6-0 lead.
The Huskies converted a fourth-and-13 to score on a pass from Keegan Smith (33-for-44, 231 yards) to Cole Fields for a 17-yard touchdown.
Palatine regained the momentum thanks to a huge option pass play from Lamm (the Pirates' backup quarterback) to O'Shea that covered 42 yards.
That set up Lamm, who ran a stop-and-go route and got the Oak Park defender to bite before catching Oles' softly thrown pass for an easy score to make it 7-6.
Oak Park again turned a long fourth-down situation into a touchdown as Smith hooked up with Jamari Watson for a 29-yard score to make it 12-7 with 3:18 left in the first half.
Thanks to the running of Josh Turner (14 carries, 85 yards) and the blocking of Matt Kerlin, Carson Walker, Joey Smearman, Andrew Martino and Alexander Asta, the Pirates moved the ball downfield.
Oles capped the 8-play, 65 yard drive with a 10-yard run to make it 14-12 just before the end of the first quarter.
It was all Lamm and Oles from there.
Lamm caught a sweet corner end zone pass that was just like the one he caught last week in overtime against Sandburg, this time scoring from 12-yards out to make it 21-12.
After a 51-yard touchdown run by Oak Park closed the gap to 21-18 with 2:41 left in the half, Oles and Lamm continued their dominance.
Lamm beat his defender on a fly pattern down the left side for a 24-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 28-19 with 1:24 left.
Then, after a Danny Garcia interception, Oles underthrew Lamm intentionally at the goal line and Lamm worked his way back to the ball to catch it. He dove into the end zone with 3.8 seconds left to put the Pirates up 35-19 at the break.
Oles (17 carries, 126 years) busted off 73-yard run early in the third quarter to make it 41-19.
Oak Park answered with a short touchdown run by Smith with 5:25 left in the third quarter to make it 41-26. Then the Palatine defense stepped up again. Led by Dylan McHugh, Mike Williams, Majetete Balanganayi, Ethan Senner, Garcia, Dylan Tapia, Elvin Lama Sosa, Anthony Portera and Brody Muck, the Pirates kept the Huskies off the scoreboard from there.
"Every time they would get a big play, we would just pick ourselves up," Balanganayi said. "We just would think out the next play."
McHugh said that theory has worked well for the Pirates on defense all season.
"Bend don't break," McHugh said. "That is our philosophy. They are doing to get some big plays. But as long we stop them in the long run, that is all that matters."
Splitt said his team came up with big plays when it needed them.
"As the game went on we started making plays," Splitt said. "We battled tough. We are a good football team."