By BRIAN HEDGER
Special to The Herald-Whig

CHICAGO —D.J. Powell thought about it for a second before gathering his thoughts.

He stood just outside the visitor's locker room Saturday on a cold evening at Gately Stadium as his Quincy teammates headed for the team's charter bus toting their blue equipment bags.

The Blue Devils lost a hard-fought Class 6A first-round playoff game 16-7 to favored Chicago Morgan Park, and a five-hour bus ride home awaited them. Powell, who finished with just 34 yards rushing on 20 carries, was emphatic as he searched for the words to sum up this season.

"This is by far the best team that I have ever played on," said Powell, who went past the 1,000-yard mark in rushing for the season. "This is a team of brothers. We always stick together and we've stuck together all season and gotten things done."

They nearly got a playoff victory, too.

There was no quit in the Blue Devils (7-3). They mounted an impressive drive in the fourth quarter that came up just 1 yard short of a touchdown that would have made things interesting.

After converting a fourth-and-1 from the Morgan Park 2, QHS quarterback Mitch Marold fumbled on the next play. Linebacker Robert Raya secured the ball and returned it 71 yards to help seal the win for the Mustangs with 5:37 left to play.

"We had all the momentum going our way at that point," said senior tight end Nick Doellman, who made circus catches of 25 and 8 yards on the drive. "Everything just turned around right at that point."

Quincy had driven the ball 73 yards on 15 plays to set up the first-and-goal situation. Doellman's grabs each came while he was covered or in heavy traffic.

"We don't pass very much, so I was just trying to make some plays when we did pass," he said. "I'm not the most athletic guy, but I feel like I'm pretty strong. I just had to use my strength to catch the ball."

Quincy got the ball back, but couldn't get past the 50 before giving it back on a fumble by Powell. Morgan Park marched it to the Quincy 8 before taking a knee and the win.

Quincy finished with just 149 yards of total offense and 107 yards rushing.

The Blue Devils benefitted from 11 Morgan Park penalties that totaled 85 yards. The Mustangs (9-1) were flagged for running into punter Kendal Kendrick to keep Quincy's only scoring drive alive in the first half, and had numerous false starts and holding calls which kept their explosive offense in check.

Alex McNay capped Quincy's scoring drive with a 15-yard TD run to make it 7-0 on the first play of the second quarter. The drive took 17 plays, covered 62 yards and ate up 10 minutes, 14 seconds of game clock.

Morgan Park suddenly found itself in a battle, but an 82-yard touchdown run by quarterback DaRon Brown on the first play from scrimmage following McNay's score put the Mustangs on top thanks to a two-point conversion run by DeVontre Spears.

Morgan Park was also looking to score just before halftime, but Quincy linebacker Spencer Emerick's interception of Brown at the Blue Devils' 10 with just 12 seconds left thwarted that drive.

"They came out and played us tough," Brown said. "They never let up and gave us a fight. It was a fight for every inch out there."

That's exactly how Quincy head coach Rick Little wanted it to go.

"We felt like if we could control the ball and eat clock, then we could make Morgan Park feel like the game was being shortened," Little said. "They'd have to hit a bunch of what we call five-run home runs. We just couldn't do on the first drive of the second half and then they scored to go up by two scores."

Quincy got the ball first in the second half, but went three-and-out. Morgan Park followed that with its second touchdown, which put the Mustangs up by the eventual final score of 16-7 after Jamal Cooks scored on a short run and Spears ran in another two-point conversion.

"We're just real proud of our boys," Little said. "Morgan Park had a real size and speed advantage, and we were still able to keep it close and make a run at it."