With the state playoffs beginning this weekend, Richards is performing exactly how coach Tony Sheehan wants his team to perform.
Displaying a tough, hard-hitting defense in concert with a finely balanced offensive attack, the Bulldogs closed the regular season with a 51-0 victory at Evergreen Park on Oct. 24.
“We’re getting better every week, which is good,” Sheehan said. “They understand that this is do or die now and they’re excited. The kids are excited to see their name up there as the No. 1 seed in (Class) 7A and they understand.
“We have a lot of guys who were on the team last year when we made a deep run, so there’s some experience there and we have some new guys who are going to have to grow up and understand the intensity of the playoffs. It picks up.”
Richards (8-1, 6-0 South Suburban Red) opens the postseason at home against Edwardsville, one of five four-win teams to make the 256-school field.
The Bulldogs opened 42-0 lead at halftime against Evergreen Park. Ahmad Buchanan scored on runs of 43, 8 and 2 yards while quarterback Noah Escobedo connected with Kamani Sapara (31 yards) and Carmelo Palumbo (10 and 6 yards) on TD passes.
“We were a little sluggish,” Sheehan said. “We threw a pick and after the second series, we went three-and-out and we decided that we needed to keep it simple here. We wanted to get things going and going in a positive way. We started to run the ball and got things rolling from there.”
On the other side of the football, the Bulldogs held the Mustangs (4-5, 1-5) to 0-for-8 on third down and 0-for-1 on fourth down. Evergreen Park finished with 46 yards, all on the ground.
“I thought our defense played really well,” Sheehan said. “… We had worked all week on what (Evergreen Park) liked to do and our defense was ready for it.
“We had seen the veer option with Oak Lawn a couple of weeks ago and this wasn’t something totally new. It was just a different way of doing it out of the shotgun and they were prepared and they were ready for the challenge of being a little bit better at that.”
Bradley-Bourbonnais 53, Andrew 41: Quarterback Camden Maniatis set a program record by accounting for six touchdowns for the Thunderbolts (5-4, 3-3 Southwest Valley Red). He threw for 121 yards and three touchdowns while rushing 14 times for 199 yards and three TDs. Andrew travels to Moline for the first round of the Class 7A playoffs.
Brother Rice 21, St. Ignatius 13: CJ Gray scored on a 2-yard run and also threw a 27-yard TD pass to Lucas Strang for Brother Rice (8-1, 2-1 CCL/ESCC Blue). Austin Mrskos scored on a 22-yard fumble return for the Crusaders, who host Jefferson in a Class 7A opener.
Glenbard East 45, Riverside-Brookfield 43: Glenbard East (8-1, 6-0) won the Upstate Eight East title on a 47-yard field goal as time expired. Braeden Novak threw TD passes of 61 and 14 yards to Xavier Mrozik-DeJesus and one of 10 yards to Jayden Karas for R-B (8-1, 5-1). Novak added a rushing touchdown while Jacob Retana scored twice on the ground for the Bulldogs, who host Rolling Meadows in the Class 6A first round.
Lyons 34, York 26: EJ Kuhlman carried 43 times for a program-record 246 yards and scored on runs of 15, 7 and 1 yards for Lyons (7-2, 4-2 West Suburban Silver). Jack Slightom threw TD passes of 44 yards to Brady Rusk and 15 yards to Grant Smith. The teams will meet again in a Class 8A opener at Lyons.
Marist 42, Notre Dame 14: Luke Detampel (15-of-20 passing, 173 yards) threw five TD passes for Marist (4-5, 1-2 CCL Orange). Stephen Brown (18 and 13 yards) had a pair of TD catches, while Marty Donahue (9 yards), Ayden Ginn (6 yards) and Conor Hunt (6 yards) also had scoring catches. Hunt (30 carries, 171 yards) began the scoring with a 20-yard run.
Montini 23, St. Laurence 0: Jimmy McDermott passed for 63 yards and ran for 50 more for St. Laurence (5-4, 0-3 CCL/ESCC White). Cory Les had a team-high 65 rushing yards for the Vikings and Sean Rice had 12 tackles and a tackle for loss. Tony Cruz added nine tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss. St. Laurence opens the Class 6A playoffs at Oak Lawn.
Nazareth 42, St. Francis 16: Jackson Failla threw TD passes of 7 and 26 yards to Trenton Walker for Nazareth (8-1, 3-0 CCL Green). Failla also scored on a 45-yard run. Justin Watson (6-yard run), Charles Calhoun (1-yard run) and Dylan Wellner (14-yard run) sdded TDs for the Roadrunners. Nazareth hosts Hononegah in a Class 6A playoff opener.
Shepard 20, Eisenhower 14: AJ Johnson (5-yard reception), Aarien Lee (15-yard run) and Antonio McCarroll (22-yard run) scored for Shepard (4-5, 4-2 South Suburban Red), which was one of five four-win teams to qualify for the IHSA playoffs. The Astros play at Bradley-Bourbonnais in a Class 6A first-round game.
TF North 40, Argo 8: Chance Sanders threw a 30-yard TD pass to Keshawn Hollis for Argo (0-9).