Oak Park’s Long Trek Ends in Loss

The result of Oak Park High’s journey to distant Beaumont on Friday was not exactly what Eagles’ Coach Dick Billingsley had in mind.

Oak Park failed to capitalize on Beaumont’s early mistakes, then struggled with its own miscues during a 34-7 loss in a Southern Section Division IX playoff game.

“I hate to end the season this way,” Billingsley said. “You have to credit Beaumont, but we also did some really dumb things.”

Oak Park (7-5) began by failing to take advantage of two Beaumont fumbles on the Cougars’ first two drives, which gave Oak Park possession at Beaumont’s 34- and 41-yard lines.

“It might have been a different game had we taken advantage of those,” Billingsley said. “I thought we could move the ball, but we didn’t.”

That proved to be a problem the entire game. Oak Park was limited to 72 yards in 35 carries and finished with 182 yards.

The Eagles were hampered when Brendan Bickley, who had rushed for a team-leading 749 yards entering the game, suffered a mild concussion in the second quarter. Bickley finished with 21 yards in six carries.

Oak Park tied the score, 7-7, in the second quarter. Quarterback Mike Stern (nine for 26 for 106 yards) completed three consecutive passes for 45 yards, the last a 15-yard touchdown connection with Chris Ruble.

But Beaumont (11-1) countered with a touchdown that was set up by Ed Montez’s 42-yard kickoff return to Oak Park’s 40.

Quarterback Brian Hershey scored from four yards and Trent Christ’s conversion gave Beaumont a 14-7 lead with 29 seconds left in the half.

“That had to be the turning point,” Billingsley said. “A long kickoff return like that, then a score right before the half just broke our backs.”

Beaumont added a 55-yard kickoff return to start the second half, then extended its lead to 20-7 on a four-yard run by Hershey.

Oak Park had little success in stopping Hershey, who ran for a game-high 156-yards behind a line that included a 240-pound guard and a 290-pound tackle.

“We had some trouble with those big kids they have,” Billingsley said. “They have five big guys going through the hole and it’s tough.”