Dillon Williams three TD passes, Glenbard East ‘D’ take care of Elgin

ELGIN – Glenbard East seemed to be its own worst enemy at times. But the Rams overcame the adversity and spoiled Elgin’s homecoming with a 28-0 win at Memorial Field.

Dillon Williams threw three touchdown passes, two to Dailen Zollicoffer, Matthew Larson returned a punt for a score, and the defense made stops when it needed to as the Rams broke open the Upstate Eight matchup in the second half.

Before Larson’s 60-yard return capped the scoring, the Rams had two touchdowns called back, killed two drives with turnovers and committed nine penalties for 70 yards.

After 23 scoreless minutes, Glenbard East finally broke through just before halftime. Williams moved the Rams 47 yards in just three plays, finding Zollicoffer on a 30-yard catch-and-run for the score.

The combination of Williams and Yassin Nabil made it 14-0 in the third quarter with a 5-yard completion.

Williams found Zollicoffer again early in the fourth quarter. And after Elgin went 3-and-out, Larson fielded Donovan Vences’ punt on 1 bounce, shot straight ahead and cut back once before racing untouched into the end zone.

Defensively, the Rams (5-1, 5-1) held Elgin to 90 total yards and forced two turnovers of its own. Demontay Mack had a fumble recovery, a sack, and a pass breakup, and Drew Kelly came up with a key interception for the Rams.

Kelly’s pick came in the end zone, one play after the Maroons’ Lamyni Spates intercepted Williams and returned it to the 3-yard line.

The defense showed that type of resilience all game long.

“Our defense is pretty stout,” Glenbard East coach John Walters said. “We have some dudes that can play. They play as a unit. They really have a lot of passion for playing defensive football. Sometimes with high school defenses you get them together and you’ve got some dudes that can play on that side of the ball. We’ve got 11 guys that really love to play defense.”

Elgin (3-3, 3-3) was able to move the ball at times but couldn’t finish a drive. The Maroons collected only 6 first downs while punting seven times.

The Maroons reached the Glenbard East 3-yard line twice but couldn’t score. The first scoring chance ended with Kelly’s interception. Then backup quarterback Terrell Arrington led the Maroons deep into Rams’ territory but his fourth-down pass fell incomplete and the Rams ran out the clock.

Williams finished the night 16 of 28 for 209 yards. Nabil caught 8 balls for 69 yards and Zollicoffer had 3 receptions for 103 yards.

Larson and Dimitri Hritz each gained 49 yards on the ground.