| Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde |
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Mike Menozzi JolietCatholicFootball.com
Shhhhhhhh . . .
The Hilltopper offense is sleeping.
Or at least it was in the first half of tonight’s game against Benet.
OK - let's get some "firsts" out of the way.
Benet - the first team to score on the Hillmen, first team to score a TD, first team to have the Hillmen trailing, and the first team to have the Hillmen trailing at the half.
What? Trailing at the half? Benet?
At half time - if I had a dollar for every person I saw shaking their heads in disbelief, I could send my daughters to college without ever opening my wallet.
The Hillmen were sleepwalking on offense and defense. Blown assignments on defense, sloppy tackling again, fumbles on two punts and another on a QB snap exchange.
The Hillmen were "this close to breaking several big ones in the first half" said Coach Sharp after the game. But they had bigger problems than that.
"I was so angry at them at halftime, we didn't hit anyone in the first half, we weren't physical at all. Coach Douglas was doing pretty well at the half being "bad cop" so I didn't have to say much."
"Call it media hangover, maybe they're reading their own press clippings - we were not sharp at all in the first half."
Sophomore QB John Ruettiger was replaced with Billy McKeon. The Hilltopper version of "Slash".
"There isn't anything he can't do on the football field, and you saw it tonight," said Coach Sharp.
As soon as McKeon took over you could see the intensity pick up. The team broke the huddle faster, lined up faster, we're sharp and crisp with their play execution, and boy did it pay off.
Remember when your father always said never play with a loaded gun? Benet found out what it's like to be on the wrong end of a loaded weapon tonight.
Benet took a 16-12 lead into halftime - obviously feeling pretty darn good about themselves coming into Joliet and having a lead at the half.
And then the gun went off - Catholic scored 42 unanswered points in the second half routing Benet 54-16. At one point Catholic scored on 4 straight first play - one play drives on long runs by McKeon, & Benson.
Last week it was Dan Hrvatin's three TD's, this week, Benson had roughly 242 yards on 14 carries.
Standing on the sideline, I overheard a spectator say, "Can you imagine Benson coming at you in the open field? He's so fast, and so strong, nearly impossible to stop." And Benet found first hand how easy it is to tackle Benson in the open field.
The defense woke from their slumber and allowed zero first downs in the second half until the substitutes came in with 7 minutes left.
Pete Barney and his gang of linebackers were all over the field tonight. Kevin Rouse was stuffing everything up the middle, and the tag team of Cranmer, Metzger, Kielian, and Kurator had Benet's QB David Case on the run the entire second half.
"We started a fourth sophomore tonight, Sean Sheppard at tight end and he did an excellent job. He blocked his man every time, every play, his guy was on his back. He was outstanding," high praise from Coach Sharp.
So what's up with the QB? Is McKeon the QB now? Not so fast says Coach Sharp.
"Billy came in because Benet was giving us the corners, moving Billy to QB puts Benson on the edge with Hrvatin (who had another very good game) with Piechocinski at FB, and you saw the results."
"John is our QB, he's learning, we need to give him time to develop, and learn the speed at which the Varsity games are played. We simply made an adjustment, based on what they were giving us. You can expect the same if we see the same situation again."
The last TD came with Ruettiger back in at QB and Benson back at FB. "Our sucess on the outside opened up the inside, and Benson broke another long TD run after moving back to FB with John back at QB"
It was pretty clear that everything happened much faster and more decisive with McKeon out there. Coach Sharp responded, "Billy knows the offense so well he just reacts, John is learning, he thinks, processes, and that makes things happen a little more deliberate."
How great is it that the Hillmen have a player like McKeon that can step in and run the offense while Ruettiger is developing, rather than just throw John in a sink-or-swim situation?
"John (Ruettiger) is going to one of the best QB's that has ever attended JCA. And he'll be a very good QB this year. He's learning."
So we have to wait at least another week for John Ruettiger to do his Mr. Hyde impersonation. Until then - this was Billy McKeon, and Joe Benson's night.
If this team ever puts two halves of football together in the same game, God help who ever we're playing, the score board may not go high enough to track the score.
Right now, this team lacks the intensity, and the swagger of top contender - so far. We saw it in the second half tonight - not just in the points scored, the entire attitude, crisp execution, decisiveness in everything they did.
The last time I saw that was in the title game last year. It was as if they knew the game was theirs right from the start. They had 14 games to develop that swagger, this team has a long way to go, but lets be fair, this is only game two.
Because of the hype and national ranking it's expected I guess to expect them to dominate every team from opening whistle to end. Fact is, these kids are learning to become a team, and I can't stress that enough. No amount of individualism will bring home another title in 2005. If they develop into a team, they have enormous potential.
The number 7 team in the country? In the second half they sure were.
I'm not sure who those guys were on the field in the first half tonight. Let's just hope we don't see them again.
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