| JCA – Benet game lives up to its billing |
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Mike Menozzi JolietCatholicFootball.com
JCA football Head Coach Dan Sharp knew he had his hands full with Benet (3-2) Friday night, he also knew the weather would make things even harder for his Hilltoppers. Battling a stubborn Benet team and muddy field conditions JCA (5-0) drove deep into RedWing territory multiple times Friday night, only to come away empty.
Last week you may remember the Hillmen struggled in the red zone against Marist. It continued this week, at times through penalties, at times turnovers, but through it all the Benet bend-but-don’t-break defense had a hand in the outcome as well.
The first half finished with in a 0 – 0 tie, but it was not without excitement. Jake Trader made his return to the lineup, and it was none too soon. His presence back in the defense spelled doom for the Benet running game.
The First Half
Benet had little success running against the JCA defense the entire game, they did well throwing over the middle, and sideline patterns to their very tall wide outs. Credit to the Benet wide receivers as well, after nearly every catch they were drilled by the JCA defensive backs, yet they hung on to the ball. Coach Sharp added “Their quarterback (Dan LeFevour) was very accurate, and their receivers made some very good catches. We were hitting. They were catching the ball and we were popping them, we made a lot of good plays”.
Benet moved the ball from their own 5, after the JCA offense failed to score, to the 50 yard line at the end of the first quarter. But the drive stalled when on 3rd and 5 JCA held on an over thrown ball and a big stick by Buchanan. Benet punts on 4th down and escaped disaster when the ball was rolled back to the punter who recovered to get off a decent punt to the JCA 25.
McKeon has a 25 yard run around the right side to mid field. Ball on the 37, McKeon for another 7 yards. With a 2nd down and 5 at the 32 JCA moved and was called for a false start, moving the ball back to the 37. JCA was faced with a 4th and 5 from the 32, Kiernan over threw Brown, and the ball was turned over to Benet on downs.
Benet got stuffed for a 4 yard loss on first down, on 3rd down Gruben wrestled the ball away from the receiver at the JCA 45 for an interception. The Hillmen drive stalled at the 47, bringing up a 4th and 3. McKeon didn’t get 3, and JCA turned the ball over to Benet again.
Benet drove to the JCA 20 mostly thru the air, 4th and 10 on the 20, 3:00 minutes left in the half Benet attempted a field goal but it was blocked by the JCA defense.
From the 28 JCA’s Clancy ripped off runs of 14 yards and 21 yards behind the blocking of Jim Jadron and John Anastopoulos. 1:29 left in the half, McKeon runs right for 6 yards, ball at the 29. Meanwhile Jim Jadron was putting on a blocking clinic with multiple pancake blocks, burying Benet’s Dan Tatro (6’4” 246) over and over again.
JCA drove to the 16 with a :53 left in the half, but Kiernan was sacked back at the 25. After a run to the 18, JCA had used all of their timeouts, Nate Hudetz ran on to the field and attempted a 18 yard field goal as time ran out – it was barely wide right. The half ended 0-0.
The Second Half
JCA received the ball in the second held, drove to mid field and quick kicked on a 4th and 4. Benet went three and out, although their special teams provided more entertainment as the punt was nearly blocked again.
Clancy had a 17 yard run, Kleeman had runs of 10, 4, and 5 yard runs, ball was on the 7 and JCA appeared to be in business. On second and goal from the 7, Clancy and McKeon muffed the exchange and Benet jumped on the loose ball at the 18.
Benet was moving again in the air after a 26 yard pass out to the 44, Benet drove to the 29. With 1:38 left in the third quarter Benet ripped off a 29 yard run for a TD which had Coach Sharp upset. “The only play I was kind of upset with was giving up the long run for the TD, it’s very uncharacteristic of us”. Benet muffed the snap on the extra point and it was no good.
JCA took the kick and advanced past midfield, but not without a 2 yard run on a 4th and 1 by Clancy for a first down. Kleeman had a 22 yard run down to the Benet 24, but a holding penalty made it a 4th and 4, 9:30 left on the 19, but the Hillmen failed to convert, turning the ball over to Benet.
Benet went 3 and out and the lone weak spot on the Benet team was on the field again – the punting team. They didn’t disappoint - the snapper couldn’t get the ball to the punter as it was chased and pushed out the back of the end zone for a safety making it 6-2 Benet with 8:25 left.
JCA received the kick and ran it back to the 49, McKeon for 9 yards, McKeon for another 9 yards, the ball was on the 32. Clancy added 5 yards. JCA was faced with a 4th and 2 from the 23 with 5:50 left in the game. Clancy came up short on the first down attempt, giving the ball back to Benet and things didn’t look good for the home team.
Benet was forced to punt the ball away from their 28 with 2:59 left, this time the snap, and punt were good ones, Catholic took over on the 26 yard line with 2:48 left in the game. They needed a TD to take the lead on what would likely be their final possession. But they were facing 74 yards and a stubborn defense in front of them.
Kiernan hit Clancy out to the 39 with 2:24 left. A false start penalty pushed the Hillmen back and it didn’t look good. McKeon had a short run to the 44, but only 1:56 remained in the game.
The Grand Finale
Benet was hit with an obvious pass interference penalty, and may have let down only briefly, long enough for Kiernan and McKeon to take advantage of it. McKeon took a screen pass left and in a blur of speed was gone down the sideline with the help of excellent down field blocking by what seemed like the entire line. Most notably, first by Erik Madsen, then by Jack Eastman (who was playing with a 104 degree temperature). Coach Sharp said “We were hoping for some good yards and get out of bounds, but the downfield blocking turned it into a big gain”. 43 yards later McKeon was in for the score and JCA had completed the comeback.
Benet head coach Gary Goforth “We had the linebackers crashing all night, but three plays prior to that screen pass to McKeon we told the defense to watch for the screen. But our linemen got caught-up inside and the blocking took care of the rest.”
The extra point was good before the JCA faithful could stop screaming in delight, JCA lead 9-6 with 1:39 left. Benet attempted a comeback from their own 29 with just 1:28 on the clock, but on the first play the ball was intercepted by Kevin Platt ending the Redwings dream of pulling off the upset and ruining JCA’s Homecoming weekend.
McKeon ran for a first down and Kiernan took a knee to end it.
Sharp highlighted the positives in the game, “The main thing is how our kids persevere, there are always games where you’ll get bogged down offensively, and when you have bad weather, facing a good team, and your passing game isn’t at it’s best you’re going to bog down an you need you defense to step up and make plays – and they did.”
“Benet made some circus catches, we had a couple big “picks” and several knockdowns, but the defense kept us in the game, until we were finally able to break one”.
“Our line play was very good tonight, they were being double teamed a lot since we were going more coverage in some situations. We got some good pressure on him (LeFevour) and forced some bad passes, for interceptions.”
I asked about he amount of carries McKeon got tonght, is this a sign of things to come? “We’ve got two good backs back there in Billy (McKeon) and Bobby (Buchanan). We knew our defense was going to have to step up tonight, and Bobby was going to be on the field on defense. I have so much confidence in Billy, I could let Bobby get his rest while McKeon was out there on offense”.
“Billy just stepped up to the challenge, remember this kids only a sophomore, and he’s playing out there like he’s a senior. He’s got great leadership”.
So the junior quarterback John Kiernan to sophomore wingback McKeon clicked for the winner tonight against a very fired up Benet team. Every great team needs “unexpected” heroes to be the savior during the long stretch of a season. The Homecoming crowd not only saw an exciting game tonight, they got a chance to see some of the younger guys delivering in the clutch.
As for Benet, they deserved a better fate after the way they played. Come playoff time – anyone, and I mean anyone, that overlooks this Benet team in the 6A playoffs will be headed home on the bus a loser. The Redwings are a very good team which they proved again tonight in case anyone thought that the 14-21 loss to #12 Nationally ranked Carmel was a fluke.
The Hilltoppers will face Marian Catholic away next week, before returning home for two games.
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