Cougars score often in win

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:14PM

With the way Romeoville has been struggling defensively, it almost did not seem fair the Spartans drew Plainfield South for Friday night's homecoming opponent.

The unbeaten Cougars, displaying speed all over the field, used a run of big plays to beat the Spartans 48-20 in the blink-and-you-miss-it Southwest Prairie matchup.

Even with the fastest of the Cougars, senior running back/safety Dondre Adams, sidelined for a second straight week with a twisted knee, South (4-0, 2-0) zipped to a 27-8 halftime lead and had the running clock in place by early in the fourth quarter.

And yet, the game summary camouflages the fact Romeoville (1-3, 0-2) is pretty athletic itself. Quarterback Matt Gillis, who last week passed for 447 yards and seven touchdowns in a 61-53 loss to Oswego, put on a Fran Tarkenton-like show with his remarkable scrambling ability.

"Yeah, he's a fast, quick, big and tough guy," marveled South senior outside linebacker/wide receiver Alex Flores. "He has us running all over.

"But our defense has grown up a lot. Last year, we had a lot of young guys playing, and that has helped a lot this year."

Flores delivered some big hits and also caught a pair of touchdown passes, one that was nothing more than a short curl route that he turned into a 44-yard touchdown with his quick burst.

Senior Sheldon Magee was another of the Cougars going both ways, and he was a highlight reel himself all night. All he did was rush nine times for 158 yards, complete 11 of 18 passes for 77 yards and hurdle defenders on a couple of occasions in a manner you seldom see in high school football.

Magee alternates at quarterback with Austin Howarth, and both had their moments. Howarth, in fact, threw a pretty 90-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline to junior Dantrell Wright on a fly pattern and hooked up with Flores on his 44-yard score. He finished 4 of 6 passing for 142 yards.

With John Magee rushing for 77 yards in 16 carries, South finished with 454 total yards, 445 of which came in the first three quarters.

"We're just not very good right now defensively," Romeoville coach Jeff Kuna said. "And what really hurt was the turnovers (fumble recoveries by South's John Collins, Jalen Coleman and Lonnie Hoover and an interception by Jacob Meeder). We had two in the first half when we were moving the ball, and four in all.

"We can't afford that when we aren't stopping their offense."

"Offensively we did what we needed to do," South coach Mike Briscoe said.

Defensively, the Cougars spent the night trying to corral Gillis, and stop backs Josh Griffin and Perez Ford.

Gillis rushed for 53 yards in 15 carries, but he probably ran a couple of hundred yards laterally trying to avoid the rush of the likes of Jack McGrail, DeWayne Moore and Collins. Griffin ran for 121 yards in 20 carries and Ford for 108 in 10, including a 60-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

Gillis went down with an ankle injury late in the first half but did not miss an offensive play. He was back moments later, scrambling as well as ever.

"He's a gutty kid. He played his heart out," Kuna said. "He felt pressure tonight with what they were doing defensively and didn't have a big passing game."

Still, for the Spartans to rush for 280 yards showed something.

"They ran the ball real well," Briscoe said. "The quarterback (Gillis) is a tough runner. He's hard to corral."

"The problem was when you get down three touchdowns early, it's hard to stay with your running game," Kuna said.

South will visit unbeaten Minooka next week, and Briscoe noted the Spartans may have done the Cougars a favor.

"It was good to see a team that came out and ran hard against us," he said. "That's what Minooka is going to do."

Briscoe said he was happy the Cougars "got better. I wasn't happy we gave up two touchdowns after the running clock, but we wanted to get kids in the game who don't usually play a lot."

Adams is hoping to return next week. Either way, Minooka will be facing a team with speed to burn - assuming the Cougars' defense can recover from chasing Gillis.

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