Football: Rich East’s season comes to an end

Updated: November 5, 2011 5:57PM

Rich East football coach Barry Reade said it all in nine words Saturday.

“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times,” he said.

The Rockets rallied from a 15-0 third-quarter deficit against Washington, but their self-inflicted wounds proved too much to overcome in a 15-12 Class 5A second-round loss in Park Forest.

With 5:51 left in the game, Rich East quarterback Malcolm Miller passed backwards to Herbert Davis who fired to a wide open Richard White for a 42-yard touchdown pass to get the Rockets (7-4) within 15-12.

The hosts got the ball back, but committed the last in a long line of costly mistakes. 38 yards away from a potential winning score with 2:38 to go, Miller tried to avoid a sack by throwing a ball up for grabs and into the hands of the Panthers’ Mason Chockley.

Austin Harrell then ran six yards on third and six to seal a quarterfinal berth for Washington (10-1).

The Panthers led 9-0 at halftime. Dakota Bullard returned the opening kickoff 87 yards to set up a 1-yard TD run by quarterback Isaac Fisher and the visitors added a field goal.

The Rockets wasted some golden scoring chances in the half. A false start on third and one at the Washington 24 led to a turnover on downs on their second drive.

In the second, Hasani Morrow’s blocked punt set the Rockets up at Washington’s 13. But a holding penalty and a sack led to a punt.

After Fisher’s 5-yard TD run made it 15-0 in the third, Rich East got on the board on Miller’s 11-yard TD pass to Anthony Perkins (5 catches, 52 yards).

Rondell Willingham ran 12 times for 64 yards for the Rockets, who held Washington to 138 rushing yards on 48 attempts.

“Our defense did a great job,” Reade said. “This is hard to take, but this was a great group of kids and I’m proud of them.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.