Playing together for as long as they can remember, senior twins Jack and Josh Rappa shared a special victory with their Rolling Meadows football teammates Friday.

Known this season for their offense, the No. 14-seeded Mustangs used a strong defensive effort to defeat No. 3 host Riverside-Brookfield 29-23 in the Class 6A playoff opener – the program’s first playoff victory since 2019.

“We can’t describe (this victory) with words. We’ve been playing together since we were kids,” Jack Rappa said.

“This is all it comes down to, senior year, laying it all on the line and all of the hard work and dedication and perseverance and getting this done. It just feels amazing.”

The Mustangs (7-3) limited the high-scoring Bulldogs (8-2) to just three touchdowns for only the second time this season with Josh Rappa making perhaps the biggest play.

With 3:18 left, R-B closed to 22-20 on a 37-yard TD pass from quarterback Braeden Novak to Xavier Mrozik-DeJesus. On the two-point conversion to tie, Leo Aleman pressured Novak and Josh Rappa completed the sack to maintain the two-point lead.

“What we emphasize all year is 11 hats on the football. That was just embodying it,” Josh Rappa said. “(Armand’s) a great player. He forced (Novak) toward me and I go clean it up. That’s as much as his play as it is mine.”

On the next play from scrimmage, the Mustangs’ Keeling Murray ran for a 68-yard touchdown and a 29-20 advantage. The Bulldogs’ John Bielobradek kicked a 31-yard field goal with 1:28 left, but the Mustangs recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Like his brother, Jack Rappa lived the victory from both sides of the triumph as a starting inside linebacker and left guard.

“The past few games we lost it was because the defense wasn’t carrying their weight,” Jack Rappa said. “It was great to see both sides, all phases of the ball, play together as one and get the win.”

The Mustangs next play No. 6 Kennedy (7-2) or No. 11 Fenwick (6-3), who meet Saturday.

The playoff victory also was special for first-year head coach Devonte Amos, a 2017 alumnus who starred for the Mustangs and played at Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

“That was my No. 1 goal coming back home was to try and get this program back in the right direction. It’s great to get a playoff win but our goal is many more,” Amos said.

“Our defense stepped up big time. The theme all year has been our offense picking up our defense but tonight we had to kind of flip that script a bit in order to get the win.”

The Bulldogs were seeking their first playoff win since 2015. They went ahead 7-0 on an 8-yard run by Jacob Retana on their opening drive.

But the Mustangs pulled ahead with TDs their next two possessions on 1- and 6-yard runs by Josh Rappa. Following the second TD, running back Luke Harvey took the snap rather than quarterback Joe Brigham and ran in the two-point conversion for a 15-7 head.

After R-B closed to 15-14 on Retana’s first TD reception this season of 22 yards, the Mustangs scored 15 seconds before halftime on a 1-yard pass from Brigham to Jake Harvey.

Brigham (197 yards) and Novak (291 yards) both had huge passing nights. Murray rushed for 144 yards all in the second half. Retana had a combined 176 rushing and receiving yards.