Villa Park Survives Shaky Start, Then Puts Away Esperanza

So much for flashy starts.

On the first play of the Division III playoff game Friday night between Esperanza and Villa Park High Schools, Esperanza’s Jarod Smith caught a 68-yard bomb from quarterback Keith McDonald over the top of the Villa Park defense for a touchdown.

From there, though, the game belonged to Villa Park. After Esperanza forged a 14-6 lead on a 15-pass from McDonald to Jeff Corbett, Villa Park ran off six consecutive touchdowns and pulled away to a convincing 48-28 victory over visiting Esperanza at Fred Kelly Stadium.

“If they’re going to score, they might as well score in the first 10 seconds,” Villa Park Coach Pat Mahoney said. “That gave us the whole game to make up the difference.”

Villa Park erased it with a vengeance. Leading the way was halfback Gary Bladow, whose 196 yards in 17 carries included three touchdown runs, the most important of which was a 40-yard sprint up the middle that tied the game at 14-14 in the second quarter.

Villa Park held a 20-14 lead at the half. But Villa Park sophomore Ellis Williams took a kickoff 47 yards to open the second half, and three plays later, quarterback Jason Martian scrambled 28 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-14.

Century League co-champion Villa Park (8-3) will face El Toro (10-1) in the second round next Friday.

“Hopefully we’ll be healthy by then,” Mahoney said. “Hopefully the kids will come back to school with no more than a bruise here and there.”

Esperanza finished 6-5.