BRAIDWOOD – The Reed-Custer football program was trying to reach rarified air Saturday afternoon.

And they wasted no time in displaying their intent to do just that. The Comets scored on their first play from scrimmage, stacked up 41 first half points and rolled to a 55-6 victory over visiting Chicago Clark to secure the school’s first ever quarterfinal appearance.

Reed-Custer (10-1) will now travel to the north bracket’s No. 1-seeded Byron (11-0) in this weekend’s quarterfinal round. Byron earned a 34-13 win over Lisle in its second round game.

“It’s awesome,” Reed-Custer coach and graduate Gavin Johnston said. “It’s just great to be a part of it. I’m really happy for our staff that we have, and we can’t do it without them. We just have the right kids at the right time right now. It really still hasn’t 100 percent set in but it will probably hit me some time tonight, and its awesome feeling.”

Clark (9-2) was one of only three Chicago Public League teams that managed to win an opening round playoff game, but it looked overmatched from the start.

The Eagles went three-and-out on their first possession and then only managed to punt the ball six yards, and stood almost idly by as Reed-Custer took its first play from scrimmage 33 yards for a score on a hookup between Jake McPherson and Elliot Cassem.

Clark’s next possession didn’t go much better and ended with another short punt. This time, it took Reed-Custer a little longer, but the drive ended in the same fashion with the Comets scoring, this time on a a 13-yard run from Jace Christian.

The Eagles showed a flash of what got them to the second round of the playoffs on its next opportunity. Clark has a massive offensive line, regardless of classification of school, and it finally managed to get a seal for Willie Taylor to get to some room to run. Taylor busted off a 68-yard touchdown run and closed Clark to within 12-6. It momentarily gave the Eagles a spark of life.

But the second quarter did more put out that spark then to turn it into a flame.

During a five minute stretch, Cassem plowed into the end zone for his second score of the game, and two minutes later Christian and McPherson connected again for a 63-yard score. Cassem finished off the Comets’ scoring rush with his third touchdown from a yard out.

“It feels good to win. First time to the quarterfinals in school history. We keep on breaking records and are looking to keep going,” Cassem said.

Brandon Moorman collected an 8-yard TD reception just before half, and Eddie Gad added another 8-yard TD score on Reed-Custer’s first drive of the second half to put the running clock in motion.

And while Reed-Custer broke through a major wall in its program’s development with this win, Johnston is quick to recognize his team has to be prepared to raise its play to another level if they want to keep this season going.

“There’s only eight teams left in 3A, and they are all going to be phenomenal from here on out,” Johnston said. “Byron is obviously a quality program as well. I think we can turn the tide and have a quality program, we have a quality team. But they have a quality team and program, and I think that’s something we have to stress if we want to be at the level, this is what we have to do.”