Streamwood knocks off Glenbard East

After a stellar first half Thursday night at Glenbard East, the Streamwood football team somehow managed to top that performance with a couple memorable achievements in the second half.

Senior defensive back Darrell Luce intercepted a deflected pass at his goal line and 100 yards later he had extended the Sabres' lead to 36-13 in the third quarter. That proved to be the final score but Streamwood (2-1) did throw in a 10-plus-minute drive to prevent Glenbard East from having any thoughts of a comeback.

"I always think about going 100 yards when I get the ball," joked a smiling Luce after he tallied his first varsity touchdown. "Actually I started to get tired around my own 40 but I saw too much green in front of me to stop. My defense was there blocking and I just saw all that green."

By the time Luce had managed to cover the entire field with his game-sealing score, Streamwood was already in great shape. The Sabres took command of the game with a dominating first half that featured a couple big plays as well as a number of ground-and-pound runs that led to a 30-13 lead at the intermission.

The Sabres opened the game with a squib kick that saw Elvis Iroegbule emerge from a scrum with the football that gave the visitors great field position at the Rams 28. Four straight runs by Michael Estrada ended in a 6-yard touchdown run and a quick 8-0 lead after Estrada also ran in the 2-point conversion.

Glenbard East answered with a 4-play, 59-yard scoring drive that saw Benny Miller run for 30 yards on the first play and Sean Banks covering the final 19 yards into the end zone to close the gap to 8-7.

But Streamwood stayed with its running attack and took a 16-7 lead after another TD and another conversion run from Estrada, who finished the game with 102 yards on 20 carries. Isaac Martinez also went over 100 yards for Streamwood.

Again the Rams countered as Miller made it a 16-13 contest with a 6-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter. Miller gained 79 yards on 10 first-half carries to keep his team close before Streamwood upped its lead with two more scores, the final one coming late in the half after the third of four interceptions.

With the score 24-13, a Connor Cerkas pass was tipped and Streamwood's Jaydon Varnado grabbed his second interception of the night, only to lose control of the ball which was then grabbed out of the air by teammate Jaden Sharks who returned it to the 1, setting up Martinez for a 1-yard touchdown and a 30-13 lead at the half.