| The tale of two games - Hill runs over Marist |
 |
by Peter Clemenza JolietCatholicFootball.com
Depending on which half of the game you attended you would have seen two different games tonight.
JCA opened the game with a screen pass, a couple long gainers, 15 and 23 yard runs by Buchanan, before Clancy took it in with a 9 yard TD run making it 7-0 with 8 minutes left in the 1st quarter.
Marist went 3 and out and had their first attempted punt blocked, JCA took over on the Marist 20. Kleeman had a 20 yard TD run 6:40 left in the 1st Quarter, 14-0 JCA.
Marist tried to get things going but on 3rd and 17 the pass was picked off by Gruben, who ran it back to the Marist 23 yard line.
Kiernan hit McKeon for 21 yards down to the 1 yard line, followed by a Clancy 1 yard TD run, extra point was good. JCA 21-Marist 0 with 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
It appeared the Hilltoppers were about to press the cruise control button.
After a Marist punt, Kiernan hit on a 14 yard pass to Clancy who took it to the Marist 31. Another 15 yard pass to Clancy to the Marist 15 yard line, but the drive bogged down. JCA faced with a 4th and 5 failed to convert the first down, giving Marist the ball on their own 6 yard line at the start of the 2nd quarter.
10:13 left in the half, Joe Stasko sacked the Marist QB in the endzone who attempted to throw the ball away giving JCA the 2 points, making it 23-0, Marist free kicked to JCA.
After turning the ball over on downs inside the 10 again, Marist got the ball with 5:50 left in the 2nd quarter, and got their first 1st down of the game. At this point the offense was moving the ball in huge chunks of yards while the Hillmen defense kept Brian Palascak in check.
After Marist punted to JCA, the Hilltoppers looked to be in business with a 30 yard run by Buchanan with a 1:31 left in the half, driving inside the 10 again, a 4th and 4 resulted in a pass just off the outstretched fingers of Kleeman in the back of the endzone. JCA is forced to settle for a 23-0 halftime score.
Although it didn’t look like it then, the momentum was starting to shift. After scoring 21 points in the first quarter, Catholic could only muster 2 points in the 2nd quarter although they move the ball without a problem, but were stopped inside the RedHawks 10 twice.
Marist took the 2nd half kick and drove to the JCA 44 before punting the ball back to JCA.
The Hilltoppers drove to the Marist 28 after runs of 12 yards by Kleeman, and Clancy with a 44 yard run. Kleeman followed that with a 13 yard run to the Marist 11 and it looked like it would soon be 30-0. But with 4:48 left in the 3rd and the ball on the Marist 9, one referee was marking the ball down, but after a discussion on the Marist side of the field the referees declared the ball fumbled. Changing possession – and the momentum - to Marist.
After it looked like the JCA defense would keep Marist pinned in the shadow of their own goal line, Marist RB Brian Palascak who came into the game with 93 attempts & 509 yards & 6 TDs burst through a hole for 44 yards out the 50 yard line. The run, following the reversed call of a fumble, seemed to energize the Marist players, and crowd as well.
The JCA crowd, after it’s initial excitement was pretty relaxed with a 23-0 score, but came alive in support of a shutout – it was not to be.
10:47 left in the game Marist’s Brian Palascak scored on a 3 yard run, which was set up by a tight end – end around for about 23 yards. JCA 23 Marist 7.
McKeon showed great speed with a 28 yard run to Marist 40 with 8:30 left in the game. Clancy followed that with a 40 yard run for a TD, the 2 point conversion was good, McKeon scores making it 31-7 with 7:35 left.
18 yard run by Palascak with 4:10 left in the game made it JCA 31- Marist 14. The RedHawks score was set up by a couple well executed pass plays that JCA was slow to react on.
Although the game was well in hand, the visiting crowd was eerily quiet, not the same boisterous crowd that JCA usually has on hand for a game.
Marist attempted an on-side kick but JCA recovered on their own 48. McKeon had a 20 yard run to the Marist 40 with 3:45 left, but JCA failed to convert again on a 4th and 2 at the Marist 32. Marist got the ball back with 1:47 left on their own 31. Brian Palascak did not return for the last series and Marist went nowhere.
JCA 31- Marist 14 was the final.
Defensively the Hilltoppers had the intensity, but lacked execution a bit in the second half. They were on the field quite a bit in the last quarter, which may have had much to do with it.
Not enough can be said about the way John Kiernan handled the team tonight after taking over the starting role until Bourg returns. Kiernan was nothing short of spectacular, it looked as if he has been the starting QB since the beginning of the season.
Offensively, JCA came out smokin’, it appeared this game would be a blowout based on the way it started. But too many failures inside the redzone kept the score from being one sided. Coach Sharp could see it coming, “I knew this team was not going to quit, I’ve know their coach since he was at St. Laurence, and that just wasn’t going to happen.”
In the second half Marist made some adjustments that they were successful with. Coach Sharp, “Marist came out in the second half running from the “I”, in a weak side formation, trying to spread us out. When we balanced up our defense they tried to run back to the strong side but Jeske is always there to clean up the strong side for us.”
“What really bothered me was their last scoring drive when they were throwing the ball so well on us, we weren’t getting into our drops. There are some things we need to work on defensively but we’ll be alright.”
Coach Sharp was pleased with the way his team opened the game, but there’s room for improvement. “The way we came out, moving the ball so well in the first quarter, and shutting them down, I think physically we never let down, but psychologically we let down after we jumped out to a good start. It happens on all levels of sport and it’s something you always fight as a coach, to keep them psychologically sharp, and stay in their game, because the momentum can shift so quickly.”
When asked about Brian Palascak, Coach Sharp had noting but praise, “He is an excellent runner, he’s shifty, he’s fast, he’s got great feet - he reminds me a lot of Joey Van Tassell. He also plays their free safety spot so he’s a tough kid playing the whole game”
“We have to do a better job tackling, the second half, we didn’t finish our tackles like we were doing opening the game. But it’s always great when you can makes those kinds of mistakes and still win by a pretty decent margin, but we’ll be working on that as well.”
While Catholic gave up two TD’s in a game for the first time this year to a very good Marist team, this team is only going to get better when Trader returns on defense soon, and Bourg returns a week or so later for the second half of the schedule. The Hillmen remain a work in progress, but after being able to thoroughly dominate a very good team like Marist tonight – they ain’t bad right now.
|
eMail
JolietCatholicFootball
"Any man's finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is
that moment he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted
on the field of battle . . . victorious."
Vince Lombardi
Our Lady of Victory . . .
Pray for Us!
Contents of this site may not be used without prior written permission.
|
|
|
