As the teams shook hands after the game,'s John Hoerster continued to coach one of his players on the field following a 41-6 loss to visiting Glenbard West Saturday afternoon.
The West Suburban Conference Silver Division mismatch served as a reminder of how much room the OPRF program has to improve.
“[Glenbard West] coach [Chad] Hetlet has done a really good job of getting those kids to be believers,” said Hoerster, who’s in his first year at the helm. “You know, they’re drinking the Kool-Aid over there. They show up on the field and they believe they’re going to win, and that’s what we’re really working on here.”
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“We’re going to watch the film and what we’re going to take out of it is try to figure out what kids are fighters, what kids fought to the end. You know, that’s the kind of kids you got to build a program around. When you play a great team like Glenbard West, you hope for the best, but what you’re really look for is how your kids respond to that kind of challenge.
“I know we had some fighters out there and I know we had some guys who need to learn how to fight.”
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OPRF (2-3, 1-2) sure picked a doozy of an opponent to play for its homecoming. Glenbard West (5-0, 3-0) entered the game ranked No. 2 in the area by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, having outscored the opposition 146-24.
The Hilltoppers overcame a slow start by their standards to build a 28-0 halftime cushion and triggered a running clock when they took a 41-0 lead with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Glenbard West gained 304 yards on the ground and 229 in the air in racking up 533 yards. Justice Odom completed 10 of 15 passes with touchdown strikes of 21, 61 and 29 yards for the Hilltoppers.
“We wanted to make sure that we worked on our passing game because we know our running game is there,” Odom said. “I’m definitely getting more comfortable as the weeks progress.”
A bright spot for OPRF continued to be Jakari Cammon. The junior running back rushed for 114 yards on 20 carries. He scored the Huskies’ lone touchdown on a 46-yard run in the fourth quarter.
“He’s a warrior,” Hoerster said. “It doesn’t take a defensive coordinator a whole lot of experience to know who we’re going to try to get the ball to. Glenbard West is one of the top teams in the state and you knew they were going to try to take Jakari away, and he rushed for over a hundred yards.”
Things went OPRF’s way early. The Huskies pulled off a planned onside kick to start the game even though it was executed awkwardly as a light squibber. They started on Glenbard West’s 41, but did not record a first down before punting.
Then the Hilltoppers fumbled on their first possession. OPRF’s Brennan Van Spankeren recovered it on his team’s 36. Once again, though, the Huskies couldn’t muster a first down and had to punt.
Glenbard West took a 7-0 lead on Kendall Johnson’s 26-yard touchdown run at 6:30 of the first quarter.
OPRF stopped the Hilltoppers on downs on their next possession at the home team’s 33, but they scored touchdowns on their next three possessions to take command.
“They’re a very talented team, very fast, very aggressive,” Cammon said.
OPRF alternated senior Mandell Ratcliff and junior Dain Mrozek at quarterback. They combined to go 4-of-15 passing for 22 yards.
Hoerster remained positive afterward.
“We’re battling some injuries, but we are making some progress,” he said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but as a staff we are seeing some good things. We just got to build on those good things. We got to work on improving in areas where we are deficient, but I’m happy with our progress. I really am, even though the score really doesn’t reflect that today.”
