Glenbard East survives scare from Elgin
Glenbard East isn't ready to give up its Upstate Eight title just yet.
The Rams have a lot of new faces, having graduated a lot of starters from the team that went a perfect 9-0 in the regular season last year. But the Rams were able to make plays when they had to and held off Elgin, 27-24, in the season opener at Memorial Field.
Christopher Whitehead scored twice for Glenbard East and O.J. Miles scored the clincher after Elgin got within 2 in the fourth quarter.
Xavier Bonds accounted for 166 yards from scrimmage and scored 4 touchdowns for the Maroons.
Down just 2, the Maroons drove to the Rams' 27-yard line with a chance to take the lead. But a botched shotgun snap put Elgin in fourth and long and Jeffery Lomax's pass on fourth down fell incomplete.
On the next play, Miles broke loose for 55 yards to the Elgin 14. Three plays later, he plowed over from the 1. The extra point made it 27-18.
The Maroons still weren't through, as Giovoni Griffin hit Bonds on a 40-yarder on fourth-and-10 to make it 27-24 with 3 minutes left.
But Elgin never got the ball back as the Rams were able to run out the clock.
"It's the first game of the year with a lot of guys who quite honestly don't have a ton of varsity experience," said Glenbard East coach John Walters. "And we got our feet wet tonight. Elgin was awesome. I thought they played a great game, they've got some athletes."
Miles finished with 114 yards rushing and Whitehead added 92. Connor Cerkas completed 9 of 13 for 142 yards, with 6 of the completions going to Deon Cook.
The teams were flagged for a combined 190 penalty yards.
Elgin, which had a couple of dropped passes and botched snaps, lamented the missed opportunities.
"We wanted to win," said Maroons coach Anthony Mason. "We thought we could have won. We just had some mistakes, some missed execution things. We dropped some passes here and there, and it just can't happen like that."
Still, it was a great night for Bonds, who hauled in a 67-yard scoring pass from Lomax on the Maroons' third play from scrimmage. He scooped up a fumbled kickoff return and raced in for a score just before halftime, and also scored on a 4-yard run.
"It was great, but it would have felt better if we'd have gotten the victory," said Bonds. "It was really, mainly our linemen. They stepped up tonight."
Bonds finished with 162 receiving yards on 7 catches.