Loara Muscles Ahead : Prep football: Saxons overwhelm Villa Park on the line. Shawn Easter rushes for 103 yards.

Turns out that the immovable object wasn’t so immovable, at least not Friday night. Villa Park High School, a team with a dominant defensive line, was pushed and shoved up and down the field by Loara in the first round of the Division III playoffs.

The Saxons, a team with no stars and little fanfare, overwhelmed the Spartans, 26-14, at Glover Stadium. They will play Hawthorne in the second round.

“I don’t know if I can take another of these,” said Loara running back Shawn Easter, who had 103 yards in 17 carries. “I can barely walk right now.”

Easter’s aches were the result of struggle between the Spartans’ physical defensive line and the Loara offensive front. The Saxons were the winners, hands down.

Villa Park’s defense--led by defensive linemen Damon Becknel (240 pounds), Brian Pearsall (230) and linebacker Jason Braun (235)--was no match for the Saxons, who piled up 284 yards rushing.

“We felt we could run on them and we felt we could wear them down,” said Saxon quarterback Charles Gipson, who had 86 yards rushing and 107 passing. “We knew we would be stronger in the fourth quarter.”

The Saxons were.

Clinging to a 13-7 lead, Loara put together two touchdown drives in the final quarter. The Saxons went 79 yards early in the fourth quarter and then 41 yards later on to clinch their first playoff victory since 1986.

Easter did the bulk of the work, gaining 53 yards in the fourth quarter. He had two touchdowns on runs of one and two yards.

“We certainly blocked some people tonight,” Loara Coach John deFries said. “Won’t have any one you could call a stand-out player on the team. We just have a bunch of guys doing their job.”

The defense certain did theirs.

Villa Park (6-5) got inside the Loara 30-yard line five times, but came away with only one touchdown. The Spartans got a 13-yard touchdown run from Ellis Williams in the second quarter and trailed, 10-7, at halftime.

Villa Park had 212 total yards at halftime. However, the Spartans had only 108 yards in the second half, 65 of which came on a touchdown pass from Jason Martian to Brad Creagan late in fourth quarter.

By then, the game had been decided.

“We played a big, physical team tonight,” deFries said. “We just stood a little taller.”