The rain-sodden football bounced along the Romeoville High School turf like a rock skidding across the top of water, but Plainfield South senior Brad Kaput kept chase, diligently following the Keystone Cops routine for 33 yards.
A 5-foot-10, 205-pound inside linebacker/fullback converted from stints at defensive end and defensive tackle, Kaput -- pronounced Cap-it -- pounced on his chance at the 2 after a Spartan offensive lineman attempted to pick up the loose bobble.
An offensive tackle trying to field a grounder like a shortstop would be the same as somebody with two broken hands hoping to untwist a bottle cap. However, Kaput then swooped in, scooped up the bean and jumped over the prone Spartan into the end zone.
Voila. Touchdown.
"It might have been a little bit of luck there," Kaput said, laughing. "You can't depend on a lineman to pick up a fumble. I know -- our guy, (end Ben) Simmering, tried to get it, too. Linemen can't pick it up because they have no hands."
Afterward, Plainfield South coach Mike Briscoe wanted to give Kaput a congratulatory hand. Kaput made Romeoville's comeback bid go kaput Friday night, scoring on a fumble recovery with 10.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to clinch a 20-12 Southwest Prairie Conference victory.
Keystone Cops? Yep, there were several sequences throughout for both Plainfield South (3-0, 1-0) and Romeoville (2-1, 0-1), and there was nothing either team could do about preventing at least 7 fumbles, including 5 lost. It rained so hard, I half expected to see Noah in the parking lot building an ark.
So, leave it to the former rugby player in Kaput to maintain the South Side's winning arc. After senior tailback Chris Brown (37 carries, 180 yards) scored the go-ahead TD on an untouched 9-yard run 59 seconds into the fourth, Kaput recovered a pair of fumbles, the latter turning that rain to ice.
Nice. Touchdown.
"I told the guys earlier today that I was going to score and I was hungry for it," Kaput said. "My old rugby coach used to tell me, 'You have to get your nose bloody.' I always try to go as hard as I can, and what I mainly got out of rugby was learning to tackle low and to run the ball hard. It helps."
"Oh, yeah, the dive in the end zone right there," Briscoe nodded with a smile. "To go up by eight, you're guaranteed a tie no matter what happens and that was a big play. They went to the shotgun and we put on a blitz inside, pressuring the center, and that made the snap harder than it should. It went right through the quarterback's hands."
Likewise, Briscoe and his Cougars had to hand it to Romeoville for a resounding effort. Despite running only six second-half plays on offense until the midway mark of the fourth, the Spartans actually led 12-6 on a fantastic fumble recovery score of their own.
The mojo pendulum swung to Romeoville with 6:02 left in the third quarter. On fourth-and-goal -- the type of situation South earlier cashed in with junior quarterback Jeff Kohl's 15-yard TD slant to senior wideout Andrew Turk -- junior linebacker Cameron Stingily stung Kohl from behind like a bee.
For what seemed as long as eternity, the ball kicked and caromed around in a pile before senior defensive tackle/fullback Terrance Williams -- wearing No. 6 -- provided the Spartans a quick-six turnaround in rumbling 78 yards with the fumble recovery.
Unbelievable. Touchdown.
"I have thank my linebacker, Cameron Stingily, for making the hit," Williams said. "If he didn't make the hit, I wouldn't have been able to get the ball and run, and I thought somebody was going to catch me the first 20 yards down the field. I almost gave up, but I kept my head up and I kept on going."
"We always talk about big plays in games being momentum lifters," Romeoville coach Jeff Kuna said. "Obviously, it was a big boost for them when they scored on that fourth down, and you never like to give that up. But we make the goal-line stand, we scoop, we score and we got momentum on our side again."
Count me on the side of those who believe that Romeoville is markedly improved already in Year 1 under Kuna, the ex-Plainfield Central defensive coordinator. The Spartans' goal: the 12th playoff appearance in school history and first since three straight under athletic director Jim Boudouris from 2000-02.
Romeoville's gears begin to churn with the natural gifts of Stingily, whose older brother Byron is a junior offensive lineman at the University of Louisville via Joliet Junior College. Look no further, though, than Williams for why the Spartans should contend in the SPC.
"Terrance is a kid who's going to play hard each and every down and he'll never give up," Kuna said. "He's also a fullback for us, and he's a workhorse. He was going hard to the last play and you love efforts like that. You know, it was almost the difference in the game. It was almost the game-winner."
"Our defense didn't quit," Williams said. "I'm proud of my teammates. It was a hard game, but it was fun -- football at its best. We want to win. We want to be the first Romeoville state championship team in football and we want to take it home."
On this grainy, slick, slippery, downpour of a night, Plainfield South brought home the win from Romeoville's house by saddling Brown and capitalizing with the key surge of his two-way fullback, Kaput (6 carries, 15 yards). Twice on scrums, he found the football, adding both parts together.
Fumble. Touchdown.
"Coach was saying that we didn't have any luck at times," Kaput said. "We had three fumbles in the red zone, but we overcame it as a team, and it's a big accomplishment to be 3-0. Next week, we have to keep it rolling."
e-mail: bscheibe@scn1.com
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