When Evergreen Park’s defense needed a big play at the end of its 14-13 victory over Reavis on Sept. 18, senior outside linebacker Jacob Ruvalcaba was there to provide it.
After the Rams pulled within a point in the final minute of the game on a 2-yard TD run by Mikolaj Wrobel, Ruvalcaba sacked quarterback Nick Gutierrez to preserve the South Suburban Redwin for the visiting Mustangs (4-1, 2-1).
“Reavis did a great job of driving down the field and scoring,” Evergreen Park coach Jim Ramazinski said. “They went for two since it was (near) the end of the game and we were able to get pressure off the edge and get a sack.
“The ball went on the ground for a second and we were able to recover it. Then we were able to recover the onside kick and finish the game out.”
For Reavis coach Josh O’Shea, there was no indecisiveness about the choice to go for the win with 40 seconds remaining after Wrobel’s TD.
“They ended up blitzing us off the edge and they made a good play call,” O’Shea said.
Ruvalcaba, Garret Kazmierowicz and Landon Robinson-Gwin all finished with two tackles for loss for Evergreen, while Gavin Wheeler had 11 tackles. Matthew Rucker added an interception and Jaylen Chothen had nine tackles.
“We were able to stop the run pretty well,” Ramazinski said. “But we gave up some passes that we probably shouldn’t have. Overall with the run game, we did well with that.”
Offensively, the Mustangs scored in the third quarter on Kazmierowicz’s 1-yard run and in the second quarter on Cory Isaac’s 4-yard sprint and subsequent 2-point conversion run from Chothen.
“Winning a couple of close games in a row, we’re hoping that we can continue to build that game experience,” Ramazinski said. “We need to continue to understand how to play in big moments.”
Reavis (2-3, 0-3) scored its first touchdown on a 28-yard pass from Dardan Nreci to Juju Shahin. Nreci was 7 of 9 passing for 78 yards while Nick Gutierrez was 11 of 14 for 108 yards. Christian DelBosque (five catches, 50 yards; seven carries, 24 yards) and Jayden Chatman (five catches, 78 yards) also contributed for the Rams.
“I thought our kids played great,” O’Shea said. “We had two key players out this week which will happen at this point in the year. But our kids played tough. Evergreen is a tough 4-1 team that just played a close game with Richards as well, so I knew they were going to be tough.
“… We made some mistakes and I had some calls that I would like back and some plays that I would like back, but so did Evergreen. … I do think we’ll bounce back well after this game. Our kids’ morale has been good even though we’ve been through a tough stretch with three losses. I think there will be some good days ahead in these next few weeks.”