Reavis rallies past Argo
By Jeff Vorva For Sun-Times Media September 7, 2012 11:52PM
Updated: October 10, 2012 6:25AM
After winning in a blowout and a defensive battle the first two weeks of the season, Reavis kept its record perfect with a wild second-half shootout, hanging on for a 30-20 victory Friday night over Argo to open the South Suburban Red season.
The Rams, who won just one game over the previous two campaigns, are 3-0 for the first time since 2004 and beat Argo for the first time since ’09.
“It’s amazing,” said Rams receiver Kenny Castillo, a transfer from Mooseheart who hauled in seven passes for 113 yards. “We’re turning all of ‘Reavis Nation’ around. Everything is positive, positive, positive. People I know and people I don’t know come up in the halls and say, ‘Let’s get a ‘W’ guys.’ ’’
Reavis trailed 12-0 with 8:19 left in the third quarter, then scored on its next four possessions after coming up empty on its first seven. Quarterback Jose Romero scored four touchdowns, on three 1-yard runs and a 19-yard bolt. The second half featured 44 points and three lead changes.
On what turned out to be the winning drive, Romero’s pass attempt bounced off Argo’s Brandon Wells’ hands and into the arms of Castillo for a 36-yard gain on a third-and-10 play to keep the drive alive.
“He (Castillo) really saved me on that one,” Romero said.
“The ball was wet and slippery and it went off (Wells’) gloves,” Castillo said. “I saw it and grabbed it. I tried to do that on other plays and it didn’t work. That one went my way.”
Romero was 12-of-20 passing for 179 yards and ran for 39 more yards.
Argo fell to 2-1, 0-1. D’Ken Jones had 24 carries for 92 yards for the Argonauts and hit Diamonte Mallory with a 20-yard pass with 11 seconds left in the first half for a score. Wells added a 40-yard TD run in the third and Hector Vazquez had a 3-yard scoring run in the fourth to put his team ahead 20-15.
