| Carmel pounds JCA 41-14 |
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Mike Menozzi JolietCatholicFootball.com
Probably the main thing you hope for going into a big game is to be healthy. Coach Sharp knew going into this one he’d be without his starting and backup quarterbacks.
Sophomore Billy McKeon, normally a wingback in this offense, took the controls at quarterback with all of 2 quarters of Varsity experience under his belt.
To his credit, Billy McKeon played very well, he showed how tough he is mentally and physically last night. With a limited playbook to work with, he drove the team successfully against Carmel’s defense. There just we’re enough drives that resulted in scores.
The Hilltoppers rarely get it handed to them they way they did on Friday night. Carmel’s offensive plan is typically to run the ball and when the opposition’s defense starts stacking the line of scrimmage, they throw over the top. They never needed to throw in this game, their running game was that successful.
Carmel clearly showed they were a better team by a wide margin. The size of their line wore down the JCA defenders, and their compliment of running backs took advantage of it.
JCA put together long drives on Carmel’s defense, but could never break the big play. Conversely, Carmel’s entire night was based on the big play, scoring on 5 or 6 long runs from scrimmage. Carmel had unusual success against the JCA defense running the ball through huge holes.
This success, coupled with a perfect game by Carmel, no I mean a literally a perfect game. Carmel played four quarters of football in the rain and had zero penalties. None, not a holding call, no offsides, no motion, nothing. Think about it, THAT is tough to do. Oh, sure if you check the papers this morning you’ll see Carmel had two penalties. One was an offsides call on the second string offense with two minutes left in the game, and the other was a delay of game taken purposely prior to a punt. To be fair, Carmel did fumble once, long after the final outcome was decided however.
Carmel got the ball first and went three and out including a 5 yard loss on a pitch play around the right end. JCA took over on it’s own 36 and drove the length of the field with all running plays scoring on a 19 yard keeper by McKeon.
Carmel went three and out on the second drive as well. JCA again took over near their own 40 and drove to the Carmel 20 before a fumbled snap in the backfield recovered by JCA left them looking at a 3rd and 14 which they did not convert resulting in no score. Had the Hillmen scored here the final outcome may have been different. JCA was chewing up yardage and the clock, with enough points on the board, it may have forced Carmel to change their game plan, but it didn’t work out that way.
Venegoni had a 46 yard TD run to tie it, and JCA drove to the 26 before turning the ball over on downs again.
After going up 14-7 on a 74 yard TD run, JCA was faced with a 4th and 4 from midfield, and went for the fake punt. Coach Sharp “The hole was there, we just rushed it a little. I didn’t want to give them the ball back, and wasn’t sure we’d get many yards out of a punt in the slop, so it wasn’t much of a risk.”
A fake 32 yard FG goes for a TD with 7 seconds left in the half making the score 21-7.
Catholic scored on it’s initial drive in the second half, McKeon again taking it in from 1 yard out.
Carmel added a 26 yard TD pass, making it 27-14 with 10 minutes left in the game.
Billy McKeon had the wind knocked out of him, and left the game, putting Sophomore starter Luke Mussleman in the game. (Catholic’s 4th quarterback used this season). Luke did complete a pass for a first down, and an interception during his first snaps as a Varsity QB.
The game ended 41-14.
I asked Coach Sharp after the game if Billy McKeon was OK after leaving the game and not returning, “He’s OK, he could have returned, but I didn’t feel there was any reason to put him back in.”
“Billy will be back and Brad will be back, if he’s not back the first game he’ll definitely be back the second game.” Brad was on the field dressed in street clothes before the game throwing passes during pregame drills. I’d look for Coach Sharp to use McKeon again in the first week of the playoffs, Bourg will get another week of healing and return the second game of the playoffs.
“The main thing right now is for us to get healthy, that’s all there is to it.”
Preparing for Carmel Coach Sharp added, “I didn’t sleep all night I had nightmares about (their offense), you don’t realize it until you get on the field how difficult it is for those guys to tackle. Their fullback, Popovitch, he’s like trying to tackle a run away bulldozer.”
“The kids are good, and they’re coached so well, Andy Bitto, I think he’s one of the finest coaches in the game right now. This program will be one to be reckoned with year in and year out”.
“They out physical-ed us at the line of scrimmage, the “Wall of Carmel” is the real deal, they showed that tonight”. “They just man-handled us and popped some big plays”. “Our defense had a good plan, but you’re trying to stop four guys and we weren’t successful tonight”.
Bobby Buchanan was cramping up at the end of the game, and to his credit, his coverage on (Minnesota bound) Jack Simmons resulted in not a ball thrown his way all night.
“We moved the ball on them very well, it came down to them converting their 3rd and 4th downs, and we didn’t. The couple of fumbles and penalties at key times set us back as well. If we got the 4th down conversion here (after driving to the 20) and we go in and score it makes it 14-14”.
“But we didn’t stop them all night, and that’s a credit to their team. I said before the game they were the best offensive team I’ve seen in 20 years of football and I wasn’t kidding. Line play, their backs, kicking, everything, and they’re well coached. We threw every front we knew at them and couldn’t stop them. I don’t know who’s going to stop them in the playoffs”.
As for JCA, “We’ll be fine in the playoffs, our kids have been around enough to know that this is a whole new season, we’re disappointed that we didn’t win the conference and beat a nationally ranked team, but we have an opportunity to win a state championship in a difficult bracket in 5A with Springfield Griffin, Morris, Geneseo, Rochelle, and who knows maybe Providence may show up in there. But we’ve got to get healthy, I mean let’s face it. Our sophomore quarterback is in this game who’s never taken a varsity snap in his life”. “We’ve got to get healthy, and hopefully we’ll get a good draw in round one”. “When we get healthy, we’re going to be a pretty good football team”.
Can Carmel win 6A? “Carmel can win 6A, 7A, 8A, they can win the NFC North the way they play. We’ve seen the good one’s, and this team is right up there with Lenti’s best, Seffner’s best, he’s got it going, and he made a ton of adjustments against us during the game. Their better defensively that most people think, we moved the ball on them, but they bent and didn’t break”.
“With the sophomores coming up we’ll have a little more depth, don’t be surprised to see some sophomores out there. This may be the best sophomore class we’ve ever had come through here. Our future looks really good”.
“I am not discouraged at all going into the playoffs, we’ll be home next week, Brad will be back, and who knows what will happen”.
Congratulations to the Corsairs. Carmel should have a long run in the playoffs, no team comes to mind in 6A capable of beating them. It does appear that this may be Carmel’s “moment in the sun” with what looks like little waiting in the wings for next year.
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