Class 3A playoffs: Reed-Custer overwhelms Carver, scores 5 times in 1st quarter

BRAIDWOOD – It started with a delay of game penalty on the visitors from Carver Military Academy on the opening kickoff.

And it all went downhill from there.

Reed-Custer (10-0) scored five touchdowns in the first quarter, practically undeterred in doing so, as it rolled to a 77-24 victory over the Chicago Public League’s Carver, which dressed only 23 players for the game.

The win lifts the Comets into next weekend’s second-round matchup with Durand-Pecatonica (8-2), which also breezed to an opening-round win over another CPL entrant, Catalyst/Maria, 52-8.

“We didn’t know 100% what to expect from them, we didn’t have any film on them,” Reed-Custer coach Gavin Johnston said. “It was a little hard to stay focused, because some of it came pretty easy, but these are good kids and they did what they had to.”

Reed-Custer marched down the field immediately after the delayed kickoff, ripping off runs of 16 and 31 yards before Jace Christian bullied his way in from the 7-yard line.

After a Carver incompletion and a run for negative yardage, the Challengers coughed up the football, and Brandon Moorman scooped it up ran 15 yards into the end zone. After the two-point run Reed-Custer led 16-0 and only 49 seconds had elapsed.

Carver’s Jamal Lasenby helped the Challengers maintain a drive on their next possession, which eventually ended with a turnover on downs. Reed-Custer didn’t feel like holding on to the ball for long once it got it back, needing only two plays to stretch the lead to 24-0 on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Jake McPherson to Josh Bohac.

On its next possession, Reed-Custer needed only two plays before Jake McPherson scored on a 42-yard jaunt. Carver managed to counter that score with a 68-yard touchdown run from Ezequiel Williams.

But it was only a blip for Carver as it continued to be helpless in stopping Reed-Custer’s varied attack. It actually took three plays for the Comets to complete their next drive with a score, a 12-yard pass from McPherson to Lucas Foote.

At the end of the first quarter, Reed-Custer led 40-8 and needed only 10 plays from scrimmage to do it.

Bohac would score on a 26-yard run early in the second quarter, and after a Carver fumble and Reed-Custer return back to the 1-yard line, Christian scored his second touchdown of the game.

Reed-Custer’s third touchdown of the second quarter, which stretched its lead to 63-8, came on only a three-play drive that ended in a 7-yard TD pass from McPherson to Foote.

That also ended the afternoon for Reed-Custer’s first-string offense, which managed to score seven seven times on only 14 plays from scrimmage.

“Offensively we did a great job of executing,” Johnston said. "

Reed-Custer also got rushing touchdowns from Colin Esparza and Zack Cieslak in the second half, which was played with the running clock.

The offensive outburst accounted for a school record single-game point total, breaking the previous record set earlier this season in a win over Streator where it score 73 points. It also pushed Reed-Custer’s season point total past the 600 barrier for the first time in program history.