Sports
Brother Rice Falls to Downers Grove South, 41-14
The Crusaders' playoff dreams ended Friday night with a thorough drubbing at the hands of a team that's been overlooked.
The Crusaders couldn't get moving Friday night.
turned the ball over on downs the first two possessions. Then they muffed a punt and lost the ball. They couldn't get moving on the next possession either, then fumbled the ball away again.
With 9:16 left in the second quarter, the Crusaders were behind to Downers Grove South by a score of 24-0.
Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“We killed ourselves,” Brother Rice coach Steve Nye said. “We made way too many mistakes in the first half. We gave them great field position, gave them the ball, gave them all the momentum. They’re a good team but we didn’t help ourselves.”
The host Mustangs (10-1) emerged with a surprisingly easy 41-14 victory over Brother Rice Friday night in the second round of the Class 8A IHSA playoffs. The victory moves Downers South into next week’s quarterfinals, where it will face the winner of Saturday night’s Bolingbrook/Mount Carmel game. Brother Rice ends the season at 7-4.
Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The first half ended with a 47-yard field goal by the Mustangs.
To their credit, the Crusaders made a game of it in the third quarter, finally getting the ground game going and pulling within 27-14 as Andrew Walker scored on a runs of 27 and 2 yards on consecutive possessions. Walker finished with 18 carries for 129 yards while Martez Walker gained 154 yards on 18 carries.
“[Martez] finishes his career as the No. 1 rusher in school history and Andrew is the No. 2 rusher in school history, so they’ve had great career for Brother Rice and have had a lot of exciting moments,” Nye said. “We were in every game all year. They never quit and they didn’t quit tonight, so I’m proud of them for that.”
But Brother Rice’s comeback was stopped in its tracks by senior cornerback/kick returner Danny Leach, who returned the next kickoff 52 yards to the Crusaders 38. Four plays later, A.J. Simoncelli tossed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Kaylon Miller on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Josh Williams, who carried 26 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns and caught four passes for 56 yards and a score, praised his team’s defense.
“To hold Brother Rice to 14 points, that says a lot. We’re underestimated a lot being in the West Suburban Gold. We don’t get any credit for what we’re doing so it’s good for us to come out and show the whole state what we’re able to do against the elite teams.”
