Like clockwork, Cocroft's big plays lift Blackhawks

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

AURORA -- Time waits for no one, except in a football game when the last snap has been taken and the ball is still alive.

West Aurora players, coaches and fans were in that serious hold-your-breath mode Friday night. Glenbard East quarterback Jack Merrithey, after rallying his team to within six points of the Blackhawks, had driven the Rams to the West 22-yard line.

The fleet-footed lefty, who had already run for 86 yards, took the final snap with 6.3 seconds remaining. West's defense sent three rushers and dropped eight in coverage.

With his receivers blanketed, Merrithey kept going. And going. And going.

"It felt like two minutes," West defensive back Markus Cocroft said of Merrithey's frantic scramble. "It was long. I tried to stay in coverage."

Finally, moving back to his right for a second time and with no defender getting close, Merrithey's feet went out from under him and he landed on his butt on the 33-yard line. Game over.

Credit for the tackle? No one.

And no one on West's defense cared. Final score: West 33, Glenbard East 27.

"I knew he'd get tired eventually," said West coach Buck Drach, whose club is 3-1 and 1-1 in the DuPage Valley Conference.

"I'm glad we watered the field, too. He finally slipped.

"What a game. We couldn't get a first down when we needed one. They did a nice job. They're a good football team."

Earlier in the game Glenbard East coach Dennis Lueck and his offense got burned by their clock management, learning there are times it pays to let the clock expire.

Trailing 12-7 and facing fourth-and-1 at his 42 with nine seconds remaining in the half, Merrithey had launched a Hail Mary pass down the sideline that turned into Holy Cow play for West when Cocroft intercepted it and returned it 68 yards for a score that led to a 19-7 advantage at the break.

"I knew he was gonna go to 89 (Lee Skinner)," said Cocroft. "When I saw the ball I wasn't gonna jump because I thought (fellow DB) Jesse Pena was gonna get it, but my instincts told me to get the ball before somebody else caught it.

"I just ran up the field and tried to wait for my blockers to make blocks. I just cut back and headed to the end zone (with no time showing on the clock.)."

Earlier in the half, Cocroft had taken a John Nunnally screen pass and motored 52 yards for a score. Running back Leon Spears then capped an 84-yard drive with a 1-yard scoring plunge.

A Tyrone Carey interception led to another Cocroft score, this one from eight yards out, on the same screen pass in the third quarter. A Garrett Rivers catch and run of a short Nunnally pass covered 61 yards to set up that score.

"We try to get the ball in (Cocroft's) hands and once it gets there, he's on his own," said Drach. "He does a nice job. He got some nice blocking."

A 40-yard Leon Spears' (79 yards rushing) run set up a 6-yard scoring run by Nunnally (204 passing yards) that proved to be the eventual game-winner.

Glenbard East dominated the rest of the second half and finished with a 429-301 advantage in total yards, 252 coming on the ground. Fullback Mathew Clark led the way with 84 yards on 23 carries.

The Rams fell to 2-2 and 0-2 in the DVC.