Romeoville Rallies, But Comes Up Short in Loss to Minooka

For three quarters Friday night, ’s football team gave Southwest Prairie Conference co-leader everything it wanted. Despite trailing 17-0 at halftime, the Spartans rallied to close to within 24-20 at the end of the third. Unfortunately for Romeoville, the fourth quarter belonged to Minooka, as the Indians reeled off 28 unanswered points in the final 12 minutes to come away with the 52-20 victory.

“Our defense played very well for the first three quarters,” Romeoville coach Jeff Kuna said. “Offensively, we made some adjustments at halftime and executed better in the third quarter. We made some turnovers in the fourth quarter that gave Minooka a short field and they took advantage of those.”

Minooka (6-2, 6-0) held Romeoville to just 11 yards in the first half, but the Spartans (2-6, 1-5) found their groove in the third quarter behind junior quarterback Jake Bambule.

After going 4-of-11 for 48 yards and two interceptions in the first half, Bambule was 5-for-9 for 96 yards and two touchdowns in the third quarter. He hit Tim Welch with a nine-yard scoring pass and connected with Duvaun Goodlow from 24 yards out for the other TD. Perez Ford scored on an 80-yard run late in the third to make the score 24-20. Bambule finished 12-of-30 for 181 yards, with Goodlow grabbing four passes for 80 yards.

“Jake found the open receivers in the third quarter,” Kuna said. “That loosened their defense up and Perez was able to break free for a big run.”

Minooka was missing its leading rusher, Kalvin Hill, during the second half as he injured his ankle late in the second quarter. Before that, he ran for touchdowns from three and one yard out that, combined with a 31-yard field goal by Jake Stytz, provided the halftime score. In Hill’s absence, quarterback Joey Carnagio stepped to the forefront, starting the fourth-quarter blitz with a 53-yard scoring run on the second play of the period. Carnagio finished with 122 yards on 16 carries, and later added a four-yard TD run. Josh Pullara, who had 92 yards on 15 carries, had TD runs of three and nine yards, and Dane Colvin added a one-yard plunge.

“Josh Pullara got some quality carries for us,” Minooka coach Bert Kooi said. “And Joey showed that he can be a threat with the ball in his hands. We like the win, but our goal is to improve every week and I don’t know if we did that this week. We still have a lot of work to do with our pass defense.”

Romeoville is set to take on Plainfield Central on Friday, Oct. 21.