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Red Devils rally, meet Glenbard for Silver title

October 23, 2008
By BILL STONE

Just as Hinsdale Central senior Eric Alexander settled into his second start at linebacker Oct. 11 against York, senior and leading rusher Rich Zajeski left the game in the first quarter with a high ankle sprain.

Alexander has returned to playing running back, sharing the rushing workload with sophomore Jake Knowles.

"Going in for Rich is a big responsibility. He's probably one of our best players and I have big shoes to fill," Alexander said. "It's fine. It's just when I finally got accustomed to defense, I got thrown back into offense. But I'm happy playing wherever."

Alexander and the Red Devils (7-1) know they'll need a great effort to achieve their goal of a West Suburban Conference Silver Division title in the long-awaited, winner-take-all showdown with Glenbard West (8-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, in Hinsdale.

The Red Devils had a rough time getting to 5-0 in the Silver Saturday, but they finally prevailed 53-29 at Proviso West after trailing 29-27 entering the fourth quarter.

"(Our players) have a big game (with Glenbard West) and I think on some level they were looking to that. But like I said to them, a championship team is a team that faces adversity and finds a way to overcome it and we did that," Hinsdale Central coach Mike DiMatteo said.

The Red Devils could have shared the 2007 Silver title with York and Lyons Township, but they lost their regular-season finale 15-13 at Glenbard West, which needed a victory to qualify for the playoffs. With less than two minutes left, the Red Devils completed a long pass play but fumbled with the Hilltoppers recovering at the 3.

Zajeski will miss his second full game Friday. Glenbard West's Notre Dame-bound lineman Chris Watt sat out Saturday's 28-14 victory over LT with his ankle injury.

"Having (Glenbard West) in Week 9 is big motivation for us with the conference championship on the line," Alexander said. "We came out flat (at Proviso West) and we learned we have to show up ready to go. We're a good second-half team, but we just need to play our game in the first half."

Quarterback John Whitelaw's 27-yard TD run with 8 minutes, 26 seconds left put Hinsdale Central ahead to stay at 33-29 Saturday. The Red Devils added a 1-yard run by Knowles, a 4-yard keeper by Whitelaw and a 17-yard run by Alexander with 48.8 seconds left.

The Red Devils went ahead 21-15 on a 6-yard run by Mick Culligan and 27-22 on a 1-yard run by Knowles following Allan Cameron's fumble recovery at the 35 caused by John Duffy. The Panthers (2-6, 0-6) regained the lead 29-27 three plays later on a 55-yard pass from quarterback Theodis Sloan to Stephen Lockhart.

Proviso West had 417 passing yards with 6-foot-3 standout receiver Kyle Prater collecting 263 of them and two TDs. The Red Devils' Mike Owens, Sean O'Grady and Garrett Kawa had interceptions in the fourth quarter, and Mike Rogers had a sack.

"Those Proviso kids fought their cans off. They got everything right for three quarters. They deserved to be where they were. Fortunately for us, we had a little juice left in the tank and we made some things happen," DiMatteo said.

"We didn't do what we normally do, but the good news is we had lots of yards and points and we kept on plugging away. We're a good team, but we can't do this."

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