For three quarters of Friday night’s Class 6A playoff opener Friday night in Gurnee, upstart Romeoville held a statistical advantage over host Warren in nearly every aspect of the game.
That is, except for one: Matt Van Daele.
The 5-foot-9-inch, 180-pound senior rushed 21 times for 124 yards, scored three touchdowns and threw for a fourth as the No. 8 Blue Devils (9-1) turned a potentially close game into a 35-14 rout.
On a night when Warren’s defense also shared the honors (Ricky Soto had two sacks and two tackles for losses), Van Daele turned in a stellar performance. He threw a 16-yard pass to quarterback C.J. Feller for the Devils’ first score, thrilled the crowd with a weaving 80-yard punt return late in the first half and scored twice in the game’s final 2 minutes 28 seconds to help seal the victory.
“This was a really nice win,” said Van Daele. “It was great to get a chance to show everyone in Gurnee and all 3,000 members of our school that they have something else to be proud of instead of basketball.”
Twenty-fifth seed Romeoville (6-4) threatened to make this one a close contest several times. Terrill McFarland (19 carries, 130 yards) scored on a 61-yard run with 10:24 left in the second to give the Spartans a brief 7-6 lead. Two series later, Van Daele picked up a Romeoville punt and weaved through a host of Spartans, breaking as many as six tackles on his way to a TD and a 14-7 Warren lead in the half.
“All I saw on that play was a lot of their jerseys,” said Van Daele. “But then I’d see one of our guys block him. There was a lot of luck on that play–a lot of luck and teamwork.”
Romeoville came right back to knot the game at 14-14 late in the third. After a blocked punt by Andrew Mooney, the Spartans drove 61 yards in 12 plays, eating up nearly six minutes before Chuck Driscoll scored from 3 yards out with 2:25 left in the period.
Just when it seemed like the game would go down to the wire, Warren put it away with a nine-play, 76-yard drive, capped by a 19-yard Jon Chase run with 9:53 remaining. The rest of the night belonged to Van Daele. After an interception, he directed a three-play scoring drive, including running two option plays at quarterback before finally diving in from a yard out. After another turnover, Van Daele needed just one play, again at QB, to burst 53 yards down the left sideline for a TD with 56 seconds to play.
