| Friars “D” slows the Hilltopper offensive machine |
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Mike Menozzi JolietCatholicFootball.com
Coach Sharp wanted several things from tonight’s game against the Friars. Coming into tonight’s game the Friars had given up an average of 5 points per game. Coach Sharp knew he’d have to have his team ready for a defensive battle. The Friars would bring the best the Chicago Catholic League would have to offer in 5A to the Stadium. Defense, and field position would be keys for the team that wanted to walk away the winner tonight.
The 10-1 Friars based their game on defense, and it had worked very well for them so far. No team had scored more than 1 TD in a game against them this season. After a few series against the Friars, that was obvious.
After going three and out the Friars punted to the Hilltoppers who took over at the JCA 39. A penalty on Fenwick and a 5 yard run by Clancy put the ball at the 49. Benson for 5, Clancy to the 37, Kiernan runs out of bounds at the 23. Clancy runs it to the 12. 1st and 10 JCA.
But so began a trend that would continue throughout the night – a holding call backed the ball up to the 21. Two incomplete passes and Platt attempted a 40 yard field goal with the wind at his back, but the ball was wide left. Fenwick takes over at the 20.
Fenwick fumbled but recovered, before running for a first down. With 2:27 left in the first quarter Catholic received the punt at their own 27.
Benson for 5 yards, Clancy for 4, Benson for 7, and a pass interference call on Fenwick put the ball on the Friars 41. Catholic moved the ball to the 38 before the end of the quarter.
Considering the games JCA had been playing – if the Friars knew they’d be 0-0 at the end of the 1st quarter it may be a victory in itself.
Benson for 6, Kiernan for 4, before Kiernan hit Brown over the middle – but it went through his hands incomplete. Benson ran it to the 19 and a first down.
Another penalty – this time an illegal block backs the ball up to the 20. After two no gain plays the Hillmen are faced with a 3rd and 22. Benson runs to the 9 fumbles, and Brown jumps on it at the 3. Clancy for a 3 yard run 7-0 after the Platt kick with 8:37 left in the half.
Fenwick goes three and out and punts. Kiernan hits McKeon from the 26 to the Fenwick 31 on a 3rd and 12. McKeon ran the ball down to the 5 yard line with 2:49 left in the half.
After a run by McKeon, Benson runs in a TD from 1 yard out, Platt added the extra, it was 14-0 with 1:23 in the half, which is how the half ended.
The Second half
The second half opened with Fenwick kicking an on-side kickoff. Even though JCA called a fair catch, it wasn’t acknowledged by the refs – JCA recovered the kickoff. Fenwick’s coach exploded, fired his notebook into the crowd and was given only a warning. At our own 36 the Hillmen took over. Clancy for 9, Benson for 4, Benson for 7 and the ball was at the 42.
Kiernan runs to the 35, but again KCA was called for an illegal block. Another holding call on JCA and this drive was going nowhere. Benson punted to the 18. On third and 3, Stasko stepped in front of a pass and picked it off who ran it back to the 40 of Fenwick and the Hillmen we back in business if they could stay away from the penalties.
Kiernan was sacked, Benson ran it to the 22, fumbled again fighting for extra yards and again it was Brown with the recovery at the 17. Clancy runs in a 12 yard TD run, the Platt extra kick was blocked 20-0 Catholic 5:18 left in the 3rd.
Bobby Craven open the next series with a 12 yard sack, faced with a 4th and 10 Fenwick was punting again.
Catholic took over at their own 17. Clancy for 9, Benson for 11, another holding call put the ball at the 35. Catholic continued backward facing a 4th and 20 from the 27, before punting.
An 18 yard pass up the sideline put Fenwick into Hilltopper territory for the first and only time in the second half.
Gurka sacked the Fenwick QB back to the 44, and the Friars were punting again. Instead Fenwick went for it – threw a completed pass over the middle but Sun-Times player of the year Chris Jeske stopped the Fenwick receiver short of the first and JCA took over at the 41.
A false start, followed by a motion penalty made it 1st and 20. Kiernan drilled Brown in the chest but the ball popped out for an incompletion, and Catholic was punting again.
Fenwick took over at their own 10. Fenwick went nowhere, and was punting.
Catholic took over at the 34. Clancy burst off right tackle for a 33 yard TD run. Platt lined up for the extra point try, but it was a fake and Clancy ran it in for a 2 point conversion 28-0 with 7:06 left in the game.
Fenwick went nowhere and punted back to Catholic. Clancy took over at fullback and Benson was out, Hrvatin took over at a wingback.
Catholic fumbled again at the 3 but Kennedy alertly jumped on it to retain possession. McKeon ran in a 3 yard TD with 1:19 left in the game and that’s the way it finished.
Without keeping stats tonight – Clancy should have gotten the 130 yards needed to go over 1,000, Benson certainly went over 1,00, and McKeon should have exceeded 1,000 yards as well. Marking the first time ever that three backs in the same backfield went over 1,000 yards in the same game.
I talked to Coach Sharp after the game:
You got exactly what you wanted tonight coach, a win, a defense that would challenge you, and your players were in the entire game. “The penalties were a big disappointment, they were drive killers. We need to work on our pass protection, we didn’t do a great job there. They brought everyone and were successful with it. Nothing was easy, but we scored 5 TD’s on them. Defensively we played just great, Coach Mac looked at some Holy Cross archive tapes (since their coach was Head Coach at Holy Cross before it closed) and we were ready for some things that they tried to execute on us tonight.”
“Jacksonville and Belleville are both outstanding defensive clubs and Morris and Metamora are as well. If we’re going to advance, we need to clean up some things. Especially our blocking, not just the line, but the ends, and backs as well, everyone needs to do a better job blocking.”
We didn’t have any long break away runs tonight, but we had some nice sustained drives. “ You have a very good secondary and everyone that’s left has those kind of athletes – so you’re not going to get the big break away runs, we’ll need to work for it and it showed we can tonight. Great runs by McKeon, Clancy and Benson, we need to break tackles and create when we can. We converted some big 3rd down plays and that’s John (Kiernan) he’s so good finding the open man, and calls plays from the line on check-offs.”
Even though we scored 5 TD’s on these guys, I think you have to hand it to the defense tonight “We will have games where the defense will have to keep us in the game, and give us good field position. They did that tonight. This was a Jeske lead defense from the start of the game and it showed, relentless pressure all over the field.”
Fenwick was never really a threat to score at anytime tonight, the Hilltopper defense was in control all night. Fenwick’s largest gain from scrimmage was a pass play of 18 yards, and was only in Hilltopper territory for less than 30 seconds in the entire second half of the game.
I talked to Chris Clancy afterward as well - You ran into a defense that gave you everything that you wanted from a challenge “We finally got really tested, with the exception of ND and Marian this has been out only really good test, when you only give up 5 points a game we knew we’d be tested.”
They seemed to put good pressure on John (Kiernan) but were able to stay in coverage as well, what were they doing? “I think it was a cover three zone, they have those big linemen that were coming hard, and didn’t allow John to set his feet, or allow him to get his reads.”
You’re about 130 yards short of 1,000 yards coming into tonight’s game, did you get it tonight? “Hopefully but I’m not sure, I know Benson got his, but he only needed 3 yards. It’s OK either way.”
With at least one more game, odds are if Clancy didn’t get it, he will soon enough.
Catholic had way too many penalties, and dropped passes that needed to be caught. Offensively it was the first game they played in it’s entirety in 5 weeks, and it showed. On the plus side, we were alert recovering fumbles that kept drives alive, and the defense was stifling again.
Defensively, Jeske is clearly the leader of this unit, and it’s paid off big for them in the results they’ve gotten this season.
Offensively, I’d be hard pressed to identify a leader on the offensive side of the ball. Not to say there aren’t players that can lead, and can deliver the big run/pass when needed.
In 2003 the offense was lead by the offensive line, seemingly because the line is as young as it is, a leader hasn’t emerged from this 2004 group. Similarly, the backfield, with two under-classmen hasn’t produced a vocal leader either. Is it detrimental to the results? Not so far, but when pressed with their back to the wall – and it will happen at some point before these playoffs are over, who will take the lead to focus an enormous amount of offensive talent toward a common goal when it's needed most?
Last year the 2003 Hillmen rumbled through the playoffs, but I thought they really came together in the LaSalle Peru game. They played their best game in a hostile environment which served as a springboard to Championship #11. With only quality opponents remaining, the Hillmen will need to clean up the penalties and play their best, anything less may mean a trip home early.
Meanwhile, Catholic continues to bludgeon it's opponents in the playoffs to the tune of 180 to 6. Truthfully, it's hard to be critical of anything with results like that.
Catholic will travel next week for the Semi Finals and play the winner of tomorrow’s Jacksonville – Belleville game.
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