GLEN ELLYN – The rain fell perpetually throughout Friday night’s contest between Batavia and Glenbard South.
Knowing that, one would assume that the running backs would be carrying most of the load.
You’d be wrong.
Glenbard South’s quarterback, Kevin Marshall, compiled 214 rushing yards and had two rushing touchdowns as the Raiders beat the Bulldogs 32-21.
“We knew he could run,” Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said.
Marshall scored two rushing touchdowns in the first quarter, the first coming within the opening 2 minutes of the game.
“We’ve had troubles in the first quarter for a while now,” said Gaspari said. “Our defense is younger, and we need to work on that.”
Despite the demoralizing first quarter, Batavia took advantage of two Glenbard South specials team miscues.
The Bulldogs returned a block punt for a touchdown deep inside Glenbard South territory and recovered another blocked punt close to the Raiders’ end zone.
Batavia’s running game never took off, even though its go-to running back, Bai Kabba, was back in action from his knee injury.
The Bulldogs offense struggled in the red zone, twice having drives end without points.
“We’ve had a history of success against this team (Glenbard South), and it was their turn to win,” Gaspari said.