Oak Forest piled up 599 yards of offense Friday night in defeating host Shepard 45-21 in a South Suburban crossover.
The Bengals (4-0) rushed for 530 yards against the Astros (2-2). Oak Forest quarterback Nick Ciufia led the Bengals’ attack with 171 yards rushing on 17 carries and four rushing touchdowns, of 30, 8, 4 and 2 yards. Running back Matt Barry rushed for 153 yards on 16 carries and scored on a 50-yard run.
Oak Forest led 3-0 after a 25-yard field goal by Blake Waller and 10-0 after Ciufia’s 30-yard TD run. The Astros converted an Oak Forest fumble into seven points when quarterback Jimmy McClinton hit Londell Lee on a 7-yard fade route to make it 10-7. That’s as close as Shepard would come.
Barry’s TD run made it 17-7 with 3:55 to play in the second quarter. A 26-yard scoring run by Ben Santigo made it 24-7 with 53 seconds to play in the period.
Oak Forest started the second half with an 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive that took 5:07 off the clock and ended with Ciufia’s 8-yard touchdown run. His 4-yard scoring run made it 38-7 with 2:18 to play in the third quarter. His 2-yard run made it 45-7.
“It was a great effort all around,” Ciufia said. “The line really picked it up, and we had some good play-calling on offense.”
McClinton connected on a 60-yard scoring pass to Lee and a 25-yard touchdown pass to Armon Lansdown in the fourth quarter.
The Bengals totaled 28 first downs. Ciufia threw for 69 yards.
