| Catholic too much for Nazareth |
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Mike Menozzi JolietCatholicFootball.com
Nazareth did everything they could to derail the Hilltoppers Friday night trying to dictate the tempo of the game with long snap counts, and keeping the Hilltoppers off balance with their passing attack.
They weren't successful.
Although they were a thorn in the Hillmen's side periodically, Joliet Catholic finished the season undefeated, and ESCC champion.
Catholic ran out to a 30-8 halftime lead, and a 43-8 lead before Nazareth tacked on a TD after Catholic was substituting freely. Playing in their last game for 2005, the last TD for Nazareth was more of a way to end on a positive note for next year.
Catholic's offensive scoring came with the Hillmen offense missing two starters up front - 6-5, 270-pound senior tackle Brett Stengele (neck spasms) and 6-1, 230-pound sophomore guard Joe Minor (surgery for appendicitis). With them missing the offense didn't dominate the line of scrimmage as they typically do, but it was still plenty to run over Nazareth even though they had 10 men in the box most of the game.
"They put 10 in the box, so we ran some inside traps we were successful with," said Coach Sharp. It looked like we weren't showing much in terms of play formations run, no point in helping the scouts for teams watching Joliet Catholic.
For Catholic, the defense was scrutiized from the first snap. The defensive backfield answered the call, but it was not as though Nazareth didn't have some success throwing the ball.
It appeared the success the backfield had was more a product of the pressure put on by the defensive line and linebackers. It was obvious one of the things Coach Sharp and his staff wanted to work on this week was putting pressure on the Nazareth QB.
There were times that, as the saying goes, "you can't tell the players without a scorecard". DB Sean Keane filled in at corner for Kelly (out with torn ligiments in his ankle), and made some very nice defensive plays with a long reach. Benson played safety, McKeon played some cornerback, Hrvatin also played some cornerback. Is this something we're going to continue to see? "Yes", said Coach Sharp after the game. "We're banged up, we'll need to put the best guys in the right positions for the playoff run, so we'll continue to mix things up for the rest of the year."
"It gives us speed and terific athleticisim in the defnsevive backfield, we need to be prepared for 4 and 5 wide formations we'll see in the playoffs, we're working on getting our best personnel and schemes out there."
"I'm real pleased with the way our defense played tonight."
Offensively, Hrvatin had 97 yards rushing and another 60 yard run for a TD called back for an illegal block. McKeon tossed in another 67 yards.
Despite the lopsided score, Catholic didn't seem sharp in their play execution. Is it possible to win a game 43-16 and play badly? Most would say no.
Truthfully, describing JCA's play as "badly" is overstating it. The tempo of the game was messed up from the start. The sophomore game ran long. Parents night festivities, and former players honoring Coach Sharps 100th win last week delayed the start of the game by more than 30 minutes. The cold weather with temps dropping throughout the game didn't help any.
Catholic scored on long runs, there were few long sustained drives that helped establish tempo, or continuity.
Most wanted to see improvement in the defensive backfield, we got that. Considering the starters out with injuries, it's tough to argue with a 43-16 win.
Catholic will find out who we'll host in round one next weekend tonight during the IHSA pairing aired live on WJOL at 7pm.
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