By Kyle Garmes
Correspondent

Sam Styler is in only his second year as head coach at Riverside-Brookfield, but he’d probably prefer if the Bulldogs didn’t have to see Kaneland in a first-round playoff matchup for a while.

For the second consecutive year, R-B’s season ended at the hand of the Knights in the opening round of Class 6A play.

Ninth-seeded Kaneland came into town and handed the eighth-seeded Bulldogs a 56-20 loss Oct. 27 in Brookfield. Aside from another early postseason exit, the loss also meant saying goodbye to a senior class that features more players than usual.

“It’s not every day where you get 27 seniors sticking with the program,” Styler said. “I believe last year we only had about 11. So that kind of turnout, having the amount of guys that we had committed to this program, it’s something I’m extremely fortunate and very grateful for.”

Kaneland (7-3) scored the first 21 points of the game, and R-B (7-3) was unable to regroup.

But still, Styler was proud of what the Bulldogs accomplished while playing this season in the Southland Athletic Conference, which features playoff teams including Kankakee and Crete-Monee. Next year, they will compete in the Upstate 8.

“We did what we needed to do with the regular season,” Styler said. “We beat those teams that we needed to beat to make it this far.

“Tonight was a great opportunity for us. It was a great atmosphere to be able to host a home playoff game. We just didn’t get it done.”

Senior quarterback Diego Gutierrez re-aggravated an ankle injury in the second half, but returned to run for a 36-yard touchdown. Before his injury, he found David Valencia on fourth down for a 15-yard score with less than 3 minutes remaining in the first half. The jump-ball connection brought R-B to within 21-7.

Valencia added a 13-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs couldn’t keep up with Kaneland’s big plays.

“Defense was trying their best,” Gutierrez said. “It was obviously hard.”

The Bulldogs appeared to have a little momentum after trimming their deficit to 14, but Kaneland immediately responded with a touchdown grab by Dominick DeBlasio with less than a minute left before halftime.

Kaneland’s Aric Johnson returned the third-quarter kickoff for a touchdown to extend the Knights’ lead to 35-7, then added a leaping 25-yard touchdown grab to make it 42-7.

“He was obviously a huge weapon in all three phases of the game,” Styler said of Johnson. “They’re a great, fast, physical team.”

Gutierrez said he will provide advice to his teammates who will be returning next season, but he is still sad to have played his final game for the Bulldogs.

“Some kids I’ve been with since preschool, first grade,” he said. “Realizing that was my last game playing with them is tough to realize, but you know bigger and better things are coming.”

Looking ahead, Styler said he will rely on players such as defensive lineman Kaleb McCottry. Styler called the junior “a phenomenal leader.”

“He’s a guy that doesn’t miss the weight room, leads in all aspects,” Styler said.

Gutierrez will depart proud of what he accomplished in his final campaign.

“We showed out the whole season,” he said. “Every game, we came out wanting to win.”