Plaso, Glenbard South knock off East Aurora
Nick Plaso has already shown that he can beat teams with his arm.
On Friday the Glenbard South senior quarterback proved his legs are dangerous too.
Topping the visiting Raiders' ground attack with 79 yards rushing and two touchdowns, Plaso led his team to a 34-21 win over East Aurora.
In bouncing back from a loss to Bartlett last week, Glenbard South improved to 3-1 overall and in the Upstate Eight Conference.
"We came in with a game plan today, we thought we could run the ball," said Plaso who also threw for 146 yards and two scores. "I thought the offensive line did a great job tonight. They opened huge holes to run behind. I give all the credit to them."
Plaso's 8-yard scamper to the end zone opened the scoring five minutes into the game. After Kylen Henderson added a rushing touchdown from 2-yards out, Plaso connected with Yazan Blan on a 44-yard pass to make the score 21-7 in the second quarter.
The host Tomcats sliced the deficit to eight by halftime before Plaso again punched one in, this time on a 2-yard run with just under eight minutes remaining in the third.
"Nick definitely has the capability to run," Glenbard South coach Ryan Crissey said. "He does a really nice job reading the defense and keeping the ball when it's the right read. He is very surgical with his running."
The Raiders then put the game out of reach on a 20-yard TD pass from Plaso to Trevor Burnett, who finished with 68 yards receiving and 56 yards rushing. Plaso has thrown 9 touchdowns and no interceptions through four weeks.
"Give East Aurora credit, they kept fighting," Burnett said. "But we proved we are going to keep fighting too. This game showed that we have a lot of weapons. We wanted to bounce back from last week. We are just trying to be better every week."
East Aurora (1-3, 1-3) was led by quarterback Orlando Garcia, who threw for 184 yards and a touchdown and also scored on a 4-yard run.
"Bartlett was a very good team last week," Crissey said, "and we knew this wouldn't be a cakewalk either. My hat is off to Coach (Nick) Kukuc, that team is so much improved from last year. We were just able to keep the ball moving running the ball and we were able to let the clock tick down."