Glenbard East offense gains momentum at West Chicago
Glenbard East managed to spoil West Chicago's senior night on Friday, notching its second win of the season with a dominant 43-22 victory in Upstate Eight Valley action.
The Rams (2-6, 2-2) got the scoring started early with an 85-yard strike from Jack Bushka to Kenny Adams on the third play of the game. That pair wreaked havoc on the day, connecting five times for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns.
"We have good wide receivers on the outside so I just have to do my job and put it on them and then let the athletes do the work," Bushka said. "(Adams and I) have pretty good chemistry out there. We work every day in practice so I throw it to him a lot and we just work all the time."
However, West Chicago (2-6, 2-4) responded by controlling the line of scrimmage. The Wildcats answered on their first drive offensive lineman Joe Orr scooped up a Wildcats fumble and ran 39 yards for a touchdown. A 2-point conversion from quarterback Jeff Zajac to Luke Seeman made it 8-7 in favor of the Wildcats.
After a Glenbard East punt, West Chicago found the end zone again when Zajac found senior wide receiver Zenen Cardenes for a 50-yard touchdown pass. Zajac kept it for the 2-point conversion to make it 16-7.
"These guys fought hard. They've really banded together - we've got a great senior group," West Chicago coach Ted Monken said. "We just don't have enough ammo these days. We're so low on numbers and we get injured - we get guys banged up - and we've got players playing both ways and it just takes its toll."
Glenbard East's offense found its rhythm again after the second West Chicago TD.
Bushka orchestrated three consecutive scoring drives, sandwiching touchdown passes to Adams and Jeremy Johnson around a 2-yard scoring plunge of his own. Glenbard East took a 29-16 lead to the half.
"It meant a lot for our program to come out on the road and get a win," Glenbard East coach John Walters said after the victory. "We saw some matchups that we liked (on the outside) and, fortunate for us, those things worked out. We had good protection."
In the second half Glenbard East forced a three-and-out before a 5-play, 64-yard drive ended in a 31-yard Johnson touchdown run. Meanwhile, the Rams defense tightened up considerably. After giving up 194 yards of offense in the first half, they allowed just 83 yards in the second half.
"Our defense was awesome in the second half," Walters said. "Those kids really rose up and played Ram defense. They were Ram tough."
Bushka added a 16-yard touchdown run for Glenbard East early in the fourth quarter to finish the Rams' scoring for the night. He ended the night with 302 yards of total offense and was responsible for 5 touchdowns on the day.
West Chicago finished the scoring for the game with a 7-yard touchdown run from Seeman, who played nicely at quarterback in the fourth quarter after Zajac went down with an injury.