The pupil beat the teacher and, in the process, ruined the teacher’s dream of making the playoffs.

Romeoville, coached by Jeff Kuna - a former assistant to Plainfield Central coach John Jackson - scored with 38.1 seconds left and beat Plainfield Central 49-46 Friday night. The loss drops Central to 5-4, making it unlikely the Wildcats will have enough playoff points to make the field.

“Give credit to Jeff and his kids,” Jackson said. “They came to play. They weren’t playing to knock us out of the playoffs. They were playing for pride.”

Quarterback Jake Bambule hit Duvaun Goodlow with a 14-yard touchdown pass with :38.1 left, answering a Plainfield Central touchdown by Tim Blake that came with 2:29 to go.

Bambule was 23-of-37 for 288 yards and four touchdowns on the night, with Goodlow catching eight passes for 107 yards. Tim Welch grabbed eight balls for 145 yards for the Spartans (3-6), while Perez Ford ran for 82 yards and two touchdowns in 11 carries and threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Welch.

Romeoville grabbed a 20-0 lead early on, but the Wildcats roared back, taking advantage of four turnovers and outscoring the Spartans 33-8 in the second and third quarters. Romeoville then put up 21 points in the fourth quarter.

“Our kids have no quit in them,” Kuna said. “We had some turnovers, but we came back and made plays when we had to. I am proud and happy for our seniors, who played their best game of the year in their final game.

"This is a special group of kids to me. This is my fourth year here, so they are the first group that’s been with me the entire way. For them to walk off this field with a win like this makes me so happy for them.”

Plainfield Central’s Jordan Ellingwood scored four touchdowns, three on the ground and one on a 36-yard reception from Blake. The other Wildcat scores came from Blake, Tyler Erdmann (3-yard run) and A.J. Apiquian (2-yard fumble return).

Ellingwood’s TD reception gave the Wildcats their first lead, 33-28, in the third quarter. After a Romeoville punt, he broke free up the middle for a 32-yard TD run that put Central up 39-28. He finished with 88 yards on 14 carries.

But Romeoville’s offense caught fire again, as Bambule hit Goodlow for a 19-yard score to make it 39-34 with 9:25 to play and then connected with Welch on a 50-yard touchdown to put the Spartans ahead 42-39 after Ford’s two-point conversion.

“Jake made some great throws tonight,” Kuna said. “And our defense got stops when we needed them to. We put them in some bad spots with turnovers, but they dug in and did the job when they had to.”