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Rich East runs past Eisenhower
Updated: August 27, 2011 8:24PM
Rich East coach Barry Reade informed his team at halftime Saturday it was lucky to be trailing just 6-0 to Eisenhower and it had 24 minutes to do something about it.
A refocused Rich East went out and scored on its first four possessions of the second half and outlasted Eisenhower 25-19 in Park Forest.
It was the fifth consecutive season the Rockets opened up with a win against the Cardinals.
“We had too many mistakes in the first half and we shot ourselves in the foot,” Reade said. “The kids thought they were just going to ease through this game. We should have been down two touchdowns. We were very fortunate.”
The one-two punch of Rondell Willingham (21 carries, 192 yards) and Richard White III (18 carries, 157 yards) combined for 349 yards rushing — all but 75 coming in the second half. Willingham scored three times on runs of 89, 3 and 3 yards. His final score with 6:44 remaining in the game broke a 19-19 tie,
Willingham busted a 41-yard TD run that gave Rich East a 7-6 lead after Jonathan Blackwell’s point-after kick at 8:18 of the third quarter.
Rich East piled up 379 yards of rushing on the day behind a great push by linemen Devon Haynes, Joshua Inyang, Ricky Dickson, Shaquan Tidwell and Vincente Torres.
Herbert Davis III had an interception for Rich East.
“There were some things we saw and talked about as far as adjustments in the second half,” Reade said. “They took our fullback away, but you can’t take everything away.”
The Cardinals had three chances to score from inside the Rockets 5-yard line during one possession in the first half and came away empty.
On another possession, the Cardinals drove to the Rocket 9. Again, they came away empty-handed after Gio Sanchez’ 24-yard field goal was off.
Finally, with 51.9 seconds remaining in the first-half, quarterback Justin Geiter (8-of-18, 202 yards; 7 carries, 59 yards) hooked up with Ben Bouie on a 47-yard bomb for a 6-0 Ike lead. Sanchez’ kick was no good.
Geiter hit Lavantis Lewis on a 52-yard TD toss and Derrell Edwards returned a kick 86 yards to cap the Cards scoring.
Leo Okeke rushed for 71 yards on 13 carries for Ike. Christian Esparza picked off a pass for the Cardinals.
“Unfortunately, their playmakers made plays for them and we didn’t capitalize on opportunities to get in the end zone,” Ike coach Travis Moore said.
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