by Roy Taylor, Sun Correspondent

For the second week in a row, Glenbard South coach Jerry Barton aired it out on the game’s first snap. On the fist play of Saturday’s Class 6A playoff game with St. Rita, Raiders quarterback T O’Shea lofted a long bomb down the left sideline, which was caught by a streaking Eric Seals and turned into a 63-yard touchdown.

Sixteen seconds into the game, South led powerful St. Rita on its home turf 7-0.

The little magic that seemed to carry over from the Raiders’ pasting of Mt. Carmel the previous week vanished in the second half. St. Rita’s Wade Weyer led the Mustangs to a 41-17 victory with 321 rushing yards and four touchdowns in the second round of the class 6A playoffs.

“We knew they were going to run,” Barton said. “I don’t know what you’re going to do to stop them. You can put nine guys in the box to stop (Weyer), then they run their bootleg at you. My kids played their hearts out; that’s the best first half we’ve played all year. But we just couldn’t keep up with them after halftime.”

Weyer and St. Rita controlled the ball and the clock throughout the game and held South to 95 total yards after halftime. The Mustangs threw no interceptions, were not sacked, and recovered three of their own fumbles while South lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions.

O’Shea led the team in rushing with 74 yards on seven carries. After solid performances the previous week, South runners Eric Chin and Seals were held to 42 and 38 yards respectively, on the ground.

Against Mt. Carmel, South opened the game with an 80-yard scoring strike from O’Shea to Lee McGinnis, setting the stage for the 33-0 victory. Barton wanted to send a message to St. Rita that his team was there to play when he employed that plan again in the second round.

“We figured they would be looking for McGinnis, so we sent (Eric) Seals over the top, and it was there,” Barton said. “It almost worked; we stayed with them every step of the way in the first half.”

While South’s plan was to stun St. Rita with a lightning strike, the Mustangs looked to punish the Raiders with rolling thunder on their first possession. St. Rita engineered an 11-play 80-yard drive that took over five minutes and featured eight carries by Weyer.

The tailback’s 75 yards on the drive, which ended with his 13-yard touchdown run, were only a small taste of what he had in store for his opponents.

South regained possession on its 13 after the score and moved the ball 36 yards on eight plays, creating some thunder of its own. But on first-and-ten from their 49, O’Shea was intercepted as he looked to throw long once again.

Three plays later, Weyer swept right and scored a 50-yard touchdown, giving the Mustangs a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

True to Barton’s words, both South units rose to the occasion on the next two drives. On offense, O’Shea led his team 40 yards down the field until he faced a fourth and five at the St. Rita 35. Barton decided to go for it, and Seals converted on a 9-yard reception.

After converting a third down shortly thereafter, the Raiders knocked on the door with a first down at the St. Rita 10. South narrowly missed scoring a touchdown when a pass intended for Tom Neckopulos was tipped and slipped out of the hands of McGinnis, and the Raiders settled for a 26-yard field goal from Andy Wernicke.

The defense’s turn to stand tall followed. The defenders allowed St. Rita to advance to the South 30-yard line when, on second-and-4, defensive tackle George Strom nailed Weyer for a 4-yard loss. Weyer mishandled the handoff on the following play, and on fourth down the Mustangs were forced to punt.

South couldn’t advance, however, and on the following possession St. Rita drove 47 yards for a touchdown, making the score 21-10 with 41 seconds remaining until halftime.

Despite the score and the little time left on the clock, South did not give up. Seals took the ensuing kickoff at his 10-yard line, faked a reverse and scampered 58 yards up the sideline to give South a first down at St. Rita’s 32 with 30 seconds until the half.

Four plays later, O’Shea hit McGinnis on a seven-yard touchdown pass to make it a four-point contest at the break.

South’s heroics seemed to vanish after halftime, when the Mustangs answered with a lightning score of their own. On the opening play, Weyer ran off-tackle right, broke free, and scored a 75-yard touchdown. South was unable to move the ball on its next two possessions, then St. Rita scored again, extending their lead to 34-14 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“At halftime, we really felt we were going to take the game,” Barton said. “And I don’t think it was the first touchdown (after the half) that stopped us, it was the second one. We tried to move the ball, and they stopped us, which did us in.”

South fumbled quickly on their next possession, allowing Weyer to score his fourth touchdown of the evening and push his rushing total to the extreme.

“I knew we were getting chunks of yardage at a time, but when someone told me I finished over 300, I couldn’t believe it,” Weyer said. “It means more to have a good game personally when your team is able to come out and get a big win.”

Despite the loss, Barton is proud of his player’s performance this year.

“The kids showed tonight that we deserved to be exactly where we were,” he said. We played with our hearts and played a great football game. But we also played against a great football team.”