When Montii Perry of Glenbard East dropped a sure interception against visiting Willowbrook in the fourth quarter, he was eager to atone for it.

“I’ve got to catch that. That’s on me,” he said.

Perry made his wish come true on the very next play when he scooped up a fumble from Willowbrook receiver OJ Powell and returned it 21 yards for a score with just over seven minutes remaining. It was ultimately the game-winner as Glenbard East held on for a 28-21 victory.

“That was a big win. It was a rivalry game we had to win,” Perry said. “They were talking too much stuff and we had to get them.”

Willowbrook (0-1) got off to a fast start as Hayden Roscoe returned the opening kickoff 84 yards to the Glenbard East 1. Anthony Leo went in on the next play to give the Warriors a 7-0 lead just 17 seconds into the contest.

But Glenbard East (1-0) responded with an 11-play, 76-yard drive capped by Michael Nee’s 11-yard touchdown run on fourth down, tying the game at 7-7.

“Our guys are resilient,” Glenbard East coach John Walters said. “We’ve won a few games the past couple of years and our guys aren’t going to get down over a kickoff return. Yeah, it takes a little wind out of your sails, but if you’re going to give up seven points, might as well be the first play of the game because you have 59 minutes to figure it out from there.”

In the second quarter, Glenbard East embarked on another long scoring drive, one that went 12 plays and lasted nearly six minutes. Nee connected with Lucas Freese for a 17-yard touchdown pass with 2:37 left in the half to give the Rams a 14-7 lead.

But Willowbrook answered in just three plays on the ensuing possession and evened things again as Jahonise Reed found a wide-open Roscoe open over the middle for a 64-yard score.

“Anytime us and Willowbrook get together, it’s going to be a good game,” Walters said. “They’re a great program. It was like this last year, a phenomenal game.”

“So many of these guys grew up playing together,” Willowbrook coach Nick Hildreth said. “It’s a great atmosphere and great for the community.”

Glenbard East looked poised to regain the lead early in the third quarter, having the ball on Willowbrook’s five-yard line. But Nee fumbled, and the Warriors recovered.

However, after a defensive stop, the Rams were gifted excellent field position following a short punt was downed at the Willowbrook 28. Three plays later, Nee cashed in with a 7-yard TD to Malachi Miller to put Glenbard East back in front with 2:16 left in the third.

But the lead was short-lived as Willowbrook’s JJ Marlowe took the ensuing kickoff 91 yards to the house, tying the game for the third time.

Miller returned a punt 20 yards to the Willowbrook 25 early in the fourth quarter. But the Rams squandered their opportunity as Nee overshot Freese in the right corner of the end zone on fourth down, resulting in a turnover on downs with 7:23 left to play.

Perry dropped a likely interception on Willowbrook’s first play of the next drive. Reed then completed a short pass to Lindsey, who was gang-tackled and stripped of the ball. Perry picked it up and dragged a couple of would-be tacklers into the end zone for the go-ahead score with 7:02 remaining.

The Warriors drove downfield and had second-and-goal from the Rams’ 7 with just over two minutes left. However, the next snap sailed high, and Reed recovered but lost 15 yards. He lost nine more yards on the next play, getting sacked by Donnie Beardsley and Donovan Brooks, and his fourth-down pass fell incomplete as Willowbrook turned it over on downs with 1:21 left.

“We could never really get any rhythm on offense,” Hildreth said. “(Leo) got hurt, and that made it tough to establish anything. It’s never the intent to start (0-1). We feel we did a lot of stuff that contributed to (Glenbard East’s) success. We’ve got to take a look and see what we can fix.”

With the Warriors having no timeouts remaining, Nee knelt down twice to secure victory for the Rams.

“We made a lot of mistakes and were undisciplined. But we found a way to put up 28 points and win,” Walters said.