OPRF Loses In Hoerster's Coaching Debut

John Hoerster waited a long time to become a head coach.

He’s going to have to wait at least one more week for his first victory.

Glenbard North spoiled Hoerster’s debut as Oak Park and River Forest’s football coach, beating the visiting Huskies 40-20 Friday night at Weber Field in Carol Stream.

Related:

The host showed why it started the season ranked No. 13 by the Chicago Tribune and No. 18 by the Chicago Sun-Times. The Panthers held a 6-0 lead after the first quarter before stretching their advantage to 26-0 by halftime.

“They’re good,” said Hoerster, who spent the past 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Mt. Carmel. “They just have that tradition and they show up expecting to win. We’ve got to get to that level.”

OPRF had trouble stopping Glenbard North’s traditionally strong running game. Phillip Jackson ran 12 times for 109 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown, in the first half for the home team. The winners outgained OPRF 406 yards to 286 — with 355 of their yards coming on the ground.

Glenbard North’s first touchdown actually came by air. Wide receiver Solomon Oquendo got behind OPRF’s secondary and quarterback Brian Murphy connected with him on a 37-yard touchdown strike for the game’s first score with 2:37 left in the first quarter.

The Panthers took control of the game with three touchdowns in the second quarter. Jackson followed a 67-yard dash with a 3-yard touchdown run, Mario Rodriguez returned a punt 58 yards for a TD and Murphy scored on a 33-yard keeper.

OPRF opened the second half with a 54-yard touchdown pass from John Phelan to Ryan Nelson down the right sideline. Matt McCormack’s extra-point kick made it 26-7.

Glenbard North answered with a seven-play, 59-yard touchdown drive, scoring on a 9-yard darting run up the middle by Rodriguez that made it 33-7 with 5:14 remaining in the third quarter.

OPRF registered a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on a Kenneth Cheatham 74-yard fumble return and a 29-yard pass from Dain Mrozek to Jamal Baggett.

“I know the scoreboard doesn’t really look like it, but there was a lot of things that we can build on,” Hoerster said. “We definitely got some growing to do, but typically the biggest improvement comes between week one and week two, so now we know where we’re at, what we need to work on and we’ll be better next week.”

One of the things the Huskies can build on heading into next week’s home opener against Proviso East is the running of Jakari Cammon. The junior overcame losing a fumble on his first attempt to run for a game-high 137 yards on 14 carries.

“I thought he was really good,” Glenbard North coach Ryan Wilkens said of Cammon. “His charge of direction was unbelievable. You thought he was going on this side. Instead he was out the back door.”

“Jakari’s a special player,” Hoerster said. “He’s a good kid. He’s a good person, (a) hard worker. There’s a reason why the kids as a junior voted for him to be one of our captains. He’s got a lot of heart and on top of that he’s got a lot of talent. We always know we’re going to be in good shape when we know he’s back there.”

Cammon was motivated by Jackson’s running.

“He’s a good running back,” Cammon said. “He didn’t go down easy. I took that personally and said, ‘We can’t stop him. They can’t stop me.’”      

Cammon said the Huskies must improve their focus, but was encouraged nevertheless.

“We’ve got to learn,” he said. “All our starting linemen haven’t played a lick of varsity. We were moving the ball against these guys. We’ll be ready for next week.”