It had been eight years since the Oak Park and River Forest High School football team played in the postseason. On Oct. 23 in an IHSA Class 8A opening-round game at East Aurora, the Huskies made the wait worthwhile, routing the Tomcats 58-7.
“It’s great to do it for the school, for the community, for all the parents that came out to support us. It feels really good,” said OPRF defensive lineman Connor Ganschow, who finished with three tackles.
“I’m really proud of these kids,” added OPRF coach John Hoerster. “Part of the fun thing about the playoffs is getting to a new place and playing a team we haven’t seen before.”
It didn’t take long for OPRF (5-5) to take control. After the defense forced East Aurora (5-5) to go three-and-out, it took the offense just two plays to score. Quarterback Liam Brown (4-of-9 passing, 90 yards) hit a wide-open Cameron Minish-Murray in stride for a 34-yard touchdown to provide the Huskies a 7-0 lead at the 9:26 mark of the first quarter.
“(Brown) did a great read and Cam ran a great route,” Hoerster said. “We got some momentum and the kids did a great job keeping that momentum up.”
The defense forced the Tomcats to again punt, and again the offense marched quickly downfield to score. Brown did the honors himself with a 1-yard keeper to give OPRF a 14-0 lead.
An errant snap on another East Aurora punt forced the punter to toss the ball out his own end zone, resulting in a safety for the Huskies. Then Labrone Neal had runs of 17, 2, and 2 yards respectively, with the final being a touchdown and a 23-0 lead after a quarter.
“That was the plan, set the tone right away. That’s what we did,” Ganschow said.
OPRF poured it on in the second quarter with three more scores: an 8-yard run by Liam Smith (five carries, 58 yards), a 31-yard pass from Brown to Javon Davis, and a 57-yard house call by Norlan Davis (seven carries, 105 yards).
“I saw a hole. Coach is always telling us to hit the hole. I hit it as hard as I could and took it all the way,” Norlan Davis said.
East Aurora finally scored with 13.9 seconds before halftime on a 12-yard pass from Joseph Becker to Alexander Carter.
Thomas Dwyer relieved Brown in the second half and guided OPRF to two more touchdowns: a two-yard pass to Chase Nelson plus his own three-yard run.
Andrew Heinzmann had a huge game with 122 yards combined on kick and punt returns. Defensively, Aidan Aleman had a team-high 3.5 tackles. Barrett Beckwith, Everett Kemp, and Connor Krumrei each had two tackles, and Krumrei, Neal, and Hudson Schedler each recorded sacks, with Ganschow and Chris Nash sharing another one.
The game’s lopsided nature allowed Hoerster to empty the bench and get his deep reserves valuable playing time, a just reward for the sacrifice and hard work they put in to help the starters and top backups improve.
“We play in such a tough conference (West Suburban Silver) that most of the games are super tight, and a lot of guys have to enjoy their role being a scout guy,” Hoerster said. “On a night like this, having those guys who work so hard during the week get an opportunity to get on the field, touch the ball, make some blocks, make some tackles, we had some young guys get experience. Having an opportunity to get another week of practice with these guys is really exciting.”
OPRF is on the road again this week, and the degree of opposition increases exponentially. The Huskies meet Class 8A top seed Lincoln-Way East. Under Rob Zvonar, the program’s only head coach since the program’s inception in 2001, the Griffins have won three state championships and also possess three second-place trophies.
OPRF does have a successful prior history with Lincoln-Way East, having won meetings in 2014 and 2015. While the Huskies have great respect for the Griffins, they are entering this week focusing on making as much self-improvement as possible in order to give themselves an opportunity to do something special.
“It’s not about (Lincoln-Way East), it’s about us,” Davis said. “We’re worried about us and what we’re going to do to win the game.”
“They’re just another team,” Ganschow said, “so we’re just going to come out and play and do our best.”