Redbirds fall short in upset bid of Rolling Meadows

ROLLING MEADOWS - It came down to one play.

The 27th-seeded Alton Redbirds had fought tooth and nail against the undefeated Rolling Meadows Mustangs all game long.

Amhad Sanders caught a leaping 29-yard touchdown catch in triple coverage from Andrew Jones with 24.3 seconds to play, and the Redbirds needed a two-point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime.

After a delay of game set Alton back five yards, Jones lofted an out pass in the back of the end zone, but the Mustangs had it covered, and it fell incomplete, thus ending the Redbirds hopes.

Rolling Meadows just did enough to hold off Alton in an intense 29-27 victory in the first round of the IHSA Class 7A playoffs at Hoese Field on Friday night. The sixth-seeded Mustangs move on to 10-0 and will face the winner of Normal Community and St. Charles North next weekend.

Alton finished with a 5-5 record.

“Our guys played their tails off. It just didn’t work out for us,” Alton head coach Eric Dickerson said. “We gave up too many big plays tonight, but I can’t fault the effort of these guys. All year they fought and to come up here, face a 9-0 team I thought we played pretty well. Hats off to Rolling Meadows over there. Good program, good team.”

The Redbirds had to figure out how to put points on the board as well as stopping Rolling Meadows’ offense which came in averaging 46 points per game. In the end, they held them to their lowest point total to of the season.

“Both teams made their fair share of mistakes, but that’s an extremely good football team,” Rolling Meadows head coach Matt Mishler said of Alton. “They were fast. They were physical. They were big. They did some really good stuff to us on their defensive end.”

Junior quarterback Andrew Jones was 21-for-32 through the air with 262 yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions. Ahmad Sanders especially had a huge game for the Redbirds. He caught ten catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns.

“Words can’t express what he means to this team,” Dickerson said about Sanders. “He never comes off the field. He goes 100% every play.”

Mustangs quarterback, Arek Kleniuk was 16-for-25 with 170 passing yards and threw two touchdown passes to Justin Kretz (16 and 25 yards). Kleniuk was also picked off twice by Alton. Jace O’Hara, who was in place of the injured Tim Szylak, carried the ball 32 times with 156 yards and two touchdowns.

Jones threw an interception to Brandon Clark on Alton’s first series of the game, but Sanders chased him down and stripped the ball away, and wide receiver Moory Woods recovered it at the 16-yard line. On the very next, Jones connected with Terrence Walker for a touchdown pass to put the Redbirds up 7-0.

O’Hara and the Mustangs responded.

Rolling Meadows drove downfield, and O’Hara found the end on a 9-yard option pitch to tie the game. Alton replied with a screen pass from Jones to Walker, who ran down the sidelines for a 45-yard touchdown, which gave Alton their second lead at 14-7. With 4:04 to go in the first half, O’Hara found the end zone again on another pitch from Kleniuk he took for 23 yards to the house.

With a 21-20 lead midway through the third quarter, Charles Miller picked off a pass and raced to the end zone, but the touchdown was annulled after a blindside block was called on Alton. It turned out to be important.

The Redbirds went backward and were forced to punt, which was blocked by Max Salhani. One play later, the Mustangs wasted no time and went to air. Kleniuk found Kretz wide open over the top for a 25-yard touchdown pass that gave Rolling Meadows a 26-21 lead.

“There were so many of those tonight,” Mishler said. “That was one on our end where they get the pick, and we push them backward after a big penalty. Our mentality is always next play. Our guys couldn’t have stayed more level-headed.”

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