Noah Taylor, Sean Rice lead resurgent St. Laurence past Plainfield South in 7A playoffs

No one would have blamed Sean Rice if he had called it a year when he suffered maybe the strangest injury of the football season.

The St. Laurence linebacker is a three-star prospect committed to Illinois and the injury-riddled Vikings were 1-5. But Rice is back, and so are the Vikings.

He led a strong defensive effort and Noah Taylor threw for two touchdowns as St. Laurence beat host Plainfield South 28-13 Saturday afternoon in the Class 7A first round.

"Oh my gosh, it's amazing," Rice said of playing again. "When I got hurt ... it was a scary moment because I had some people telling me I wasn't going to play again in my high school career. ... I had people telling me, 'No, it's not worth it to play another snap in high school football.' But this team means the world to me and getting back on the field is all that mattered."

The injury? He hurt an ankle running through a banner before a game.

"The cheer girls told me after the game that they did the Velcro too tight, so it felt like running into a wall," Rice said.

"But things happen, so you've just got to work through it."

St. Laurence (5-6) held Plainfield South (8-2) scoreless for the last 2 1/2 quarters, getting an interception by Tony Cruz and a red-zone stop that ended with a missed field goal by the Cougars.

"I think we had a big shift on our team after Week 6," Rice said. "We realized that we have dudes on this team. We have leaders. We have guys that can step up and make big plays in big moments. ...

"So I think that just shows that we're the grittiest team that you can find."

Taylor, a junior, is one of those who stepped up. He was 16 of 28 passing for 214 yards with touchdowns of 48 yards to Jackson Kavois and 20 yards to freshman Dakarai Simmons. Taylor ran 13 times for 100 yards and the Vikings also had TD runs by Keynan Morgan and Dave Campbell.

"You knew he was a really good runner all year," St. Laurence coach Pat Swanson said of Taylor. "He does some really special things in that department, makes us really good there. But to see his progression as a passer throughout the year ... it's special to see the light bulb turn on a little bit for some guys and to see some of our receivers on the outside help him out and find ways to get open."

"Honestly, I've been counted out in the pass game by a lot of people," Taylor said. "Everybody tells me I'm a run-first quarterback — like I shouldn't be out there playing quarterback. But I've played quarterback all my life and I knew that I had it in me."

Plainfield South sophomore quarterback Armani Ford was 19 of 36 passing for 206 yards and two touchdowns, including a 70-yarder to Liem Sesta, with one interception.

The Cougars won the Southwest Prairie East and had their best record in 16 years.

"I'm going to miss the ones who are leaving," coach Rob Szudarski said. "But they laid the standards and the foundation for us. And the others understand what it's going to take now to get to this level and to do this year after year. ... We want to be a perennial playoff team. We don't want to be one year in and one year out."