TP_091318

44 | September 13, 2018 | The tinley junction sports
tinleyjunction.com
Older brother wins the first ‘Battle of the O’Sheas’
Bremen tops TPHS
in league opener
PHIL ARVIA, Freelance Reporter
The lights were still on at
Bremen, though it had long
been lights out for Tinley
Park, when Braves coach
Dan Stell, Titans coach Josh
O’Shea and Braves assistant
Tom O’Shea came together
near the home sideline.
Then they dished out the
only contact that really mattered
in and around a 34-21
South Suburban Blue-opening
Bremen win Friday in
Midlothian: hugs and handshakes
all around.
Josh O’Shea had been
an assistant for seven years
at Bremen, from which he
graduated, before going to
Tinley Park as its baseball
coach and, this season, taking
over the football program
as well. He coached
under Stell, who dubbed the
South Suburban Blue opener
for both teams “the Battle
of the O’Sheas” because,
Tom, four years older than
Josh and a 1994 Bremen
grad, is Stell’s defensive
ends coach.
“Josh is a Bremen guy,
he was on staff with us for
years, we expected a battle,”
Stell said. “We’re all extremely
close. We had the
text battle going all week.
It was just a fun atmosphere
for a high school football
game.”
Well, it was for Bremen,
anyway, after the Braves
scored three times in under
four minutes to turn a 7-0,
second-quarter deficit into a
20-7 lead.
It was the kind of savage
reversal of fortune one might
expect a big brother to lay on
a younger brother who landed
an early shot. If you didn’t
know the O’Sheas, that is —
they didn’t so much as have
Josh (left) and Tom O’Shea pose before Friday night’s game in Midlothian. Josh is the
first-year head coach at Tinley Park High School and his older brother, Tom, is an assistant
at Bremen. Tom and his crew got the better of Josh and the Titans with a 34-21 victory.
PHOTOS BY JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
dinner bet on the game.
“Bragging rights, that’s
what’s at stake,” Tom said.
“Josh is my only brother. We
look after each other.”
“This was definitely a
game we wanted to get,”
Josh said. “But it’s never
been that kind of rivalry for
me and Tom. Tom’s four
years older. We’ve always
been on the same side. We
still are — he’s my freshman
assistant for baseball at
Tinley.
“Since neither of our parents
are around, it’s Tom
who’s always there for me.
He’s the one I go to.”
There were few other
go-to guys left for the Titans
(2-1, 0-1) by the time
the Braves (2-1, 1-0) were
through.
Starting quarterback Joe
Mackessy saw no fourthquarter
action after banging
up a knee. His backup, Riley
Palermo, was already out
with an injury suffered earlier
on defense, so running
back/safety Ronin Gilbert,
who’d sat most of the middle
two quarters with a bruised
hamstring, came in as an
emergency fill-in. By game’s
end, running back Jojo Gallegos
was even pressed into
emergency punting duties.
“We just thought, ‘Next
man up,’” Gallegos said.
“That’s what I was telling
the guys.
“It was a really sloppy
game. It started off good, but
then …
“It went backwards from
there.”
Gilbert’s five-yard touchdown
burst capped a sevenplay,
47-yard drive to the
game’s first score, at the
4:25 mark of the first quarter.
Bremen answered with
a 25-yard Danny Fus-to-Joe
Adakahunsi touchdown pass
barely 90 seconds into the
second quarter, and from
there, the dam burst.
A successful onside kick
gave the ball right back to
Bremen. Five snaps later,
Fus hit Devonte O’Malley
for a 37-yard score.
On the first snap after the
ensuing kickoff, Jalil Lenore
picked off a Tinley screen
pass and went 25 yards for
Bremen’s third score in a
span of 3:42.
An 80-yard touchdown
drive to open the second
half, capped by a 16-yard
Fus run, all but ended the
drama. Gallegos had a oneyard
touchdown run and
scooped up a fumbled snap
to go 44 yards for another
score for the Titans, but they
were sandwiched around a
46-yard scoring jaunt for
Adakahunsi.
“It was just like a backyard
game against your brother,”
Gallegos said. “There’s no
one you want to beat more.
It just didn’t go our way.”
Tinley Park’s Ronin Gilbert scored the game’s first
touchdown but the Titans suffered a 34-21 loss to Bremen.
TINLEY PARK VS. BREMEN, SEPT. 7
1 2 3 4 F
TINLEY PARK 7 0 7 7 21
BREMEN 0 20 7 7 34
Top Performers:
1. Joe Adakahunsi (B) 81 yards, 1 TD rushing; 48 yards, 1 TD
receiving
2. Jojo Gallegos (TP) 67 yards, 2 TD rushing
3. Danny Fus (B) 9-of-12 passing, 2 TD, 159 yards
AREA FOOTBALL STANDINGS
SouthWest Suburban
Team, Conf. Record, Overall
LW Central 2-0, 2-1
LW East 1-0, 3-0
H-F 1-0, 3-0
Bolingbrook 1-0, 3-0
Andrew 1-1, 2-1
LW West 1-1, 2-1
Thornton 1-1, 2-1
Thornridge 0-0, 1-2
Sandburg 0-1, 2-1
Brad-Bourb. 0-1, 2-1
Thornwood 0-1, 1-2
Lockport 0-1, 0-3
Stagg 0-1, 0-3
South Suburban Red
Team, Conf. Record, Overall
TF South 1-0, 3-0
Bremen 1-0, 2-1
Lemont 1-0, 1-2
Hillcrest 0-0, 3-0
Tinley Park 0-1, 2-1
TF North 0-1, 1-2
Oak Forest 0-1, 0-3
Chicago Catholic League Blue
Team, Conf. Record, Overall
Providence 0-0, 3-0
Brother Rice 0-0, 3-0
Montini 0-0 3-0
Loyola 0-0, 2-1
St. Rita 0-0, 1-2