Nathaniel Altepeter goes for TD on 1st play from scrimmage as Sycamore shuts out top-seeded Glenbard South

SYCAMORE – Nathaniel Altepeter’s 71-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage gave the Sycamore football team all the points it would need in a 34-0 win over No. 1-seeded Glenbard South on Saturday in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.

Altepeter took the opening handoff right up the gut, broke through the line and ended up with nothing but open field in front of him to stake the No. 9-seeded Spartans to a 6-0 lead only 19 seconds into the game.

“I didn’t expect it to break out like that,” Altepeter said. “I started to trip a bit and caught myself. I just saw green grass and sprinted.”

The Spartans (8-3) scored four more touchdowns in the game, and their defense stymied the Raiders (9-2) at every turn. It was the first time Glenbard South was shut out since losing, 42-0, to Boylan in the first round of the 2019 playoffs.

The Raiders ran 66 plays and finished with 289 total yards but had only 17 carries for 43 yards in the first half. Senior Trevor Burnett, with multiple NCAA Division I offers, had 19 carries for 92 yards.

“We really tried to establish a run game as much as possible,” Glenbard South coach Ryan Crissey said. “They had better horses than us up front. We were able to do some things, get to the edge using Trevor’s speed. [We] had some success with that, but not enough to keep a balanced effort.”

Glenbard South sophomore receiver Cam Williams was held to 84 receiving yards on nine catches.

“We wanted to make sure he didn’t have a big play,” Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. “He could get some catches. We just wanted to keep everything was in front of us. We were able to do that.”

The Raiders had a chance to answer back on their first possession. Williams drew a pass interference penalty on their first play, and the Raiders marched to Sycamore’s 10-yard line. But a holding penalty turned a third-and-4 into a third-and-13, then Lincoln Cooley tipped a pass at the line of scrimmage for an incompletion, and quarterback Michael Champagne couldn’t find Williams in the end zone on fourth down.

Still down 6-0, the Raiders had two more possessions in a row to try to get on the board after recovering a fumbled punt, but they saw their second drive stall in the red zone.

On third-and-3 from the 6, Cooley leveled Burnett for a 4-yard loss, then Tyler Curtis broke up a pass in the end zone on fourth down intended for Williams.

“Our defense did really good,” Altepeter said. “They have a really good offense and two really good players, the running back and receiver. I think the defense improved the most out of anybody on our team.”

Ryan said that his team didn’t get too high after the strong start to the game and remained focused.

“You can see that, get too high, and all of a sudden they get a play and then it levels out,” Ryan said. “There’s 48 minutes in the game for a reason, and we scored in what, the first 12 seconds? There was a lot of game left.”

Altepeter finished with 184 yards on 14 carries. He also had a 58-yard run in the second quarter that set up a 6-yard touchdown run by quarterback Eli Meier. Altepeter also had a 19-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.

Crissey said he felt like the defense wrapped up Altepeter on the first scoring run and had him ‘dead to rights’ before allowing him to break free.

“It does suck the wind out of your sails momentarily, but we’ve got a resilient group of kids,” Crissey said. “They bounce back. The sideline, yeah we were down ourselves. For about 20 seconds. Then it’s time to go back to work.”

Zack Crawford ran for 88 yards and a touchdown for the Spartans, who ran for 355 yards as a team. Meier threw for 39 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Alexander.

Sycamore advances to host No. 13 St. Patrick at 2 p.m. Saturday, while the season comes to an end for the Raiders.

“It was a positive season, you know 9-2,” Crissey said. “Obviously, we’re one of out of however many teams that end the season with a loss. There’s only eight teams that end up with wins. But it’s a great launch point for us to see where we’re at and where we need to be.”