The Glenbard West football team made a strong case for being a top conference contender after knocking off three-time defending West Suburban Silver champion York 48-6 Friday night in Elmhurst.

Running back Bryant Venson scored three touchdowns and David McCaffrey highlighted a 28-point first quarter with an interception return for a score as the Hilltoppers improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the WSS.

“This was big for us,” Glenbard West coach Chad Hetlet said. “It is a proving ground for where we are as a football program and where we are as a football team.”

The Hilltoppers were a blur in the first quarter, scoring three times in just over three minutes.

Venson had an 87-yard touchdown run with 8:27 left in the opening quarter. After a York punt, Robert Cook (12 carries, 147 yards) raced 58 yards for a score, and on the very next play from scrimmage, McCaffrey picked off a pass and followed a caravan of blockers down the left sideline 65 yards to paydirt.

Matt Hassan’s three-yard burst made it 28-0 in the final seconds of the first period.

Venson (nine carries, 148 yards) hit the end zone again midway through the second quarter on a 43-yard run and finished his night with an eight-yard run to make it 42-6 with 5:10 left in the third. Steve Jones rounded out the scoring with a two-yard run late in the fourth.

For York, the offense struggled against a quick and aggressive Hilltopper defense. Quarterback Tom Judge hit Joe Santiago on a 29-yard touchdown strike with 1:29 left in the first half for the team’s only score. That play was almost double the Dukes’ total yardage in the first half.

Judge finished 11 of 24 for 147 yards. Santiago hauled in five catches for 101 yards and Andrew Johnson caught four balls for 41 yards.

“We knew they were a good team,” York coach Bill Lech said. “We thought we might play with them a little better than we did.
“They made it difficult for us and that’s what good teams do. They got up on us and we weren’t going to score 21 points against them — not tonight.”