Mount Carmel regroups against St. Rita 39-10 in IHSA football 7A first round

CHICAGO — Mount Carmel’s Jack Elliott took out a week’s worth of frustration on St. Rita during the second play of their Class 7A first-round game on Friday night.

The Caravan came off a close loss to Loyola last week that broke the Caravan’s 22-game winning streak. Elliott and Mount Carmel wanted to make a statement right from the beginning against their CCL/ESCC Blue rivals.

Message received.

Elliott ran the ball 86 yards past different Mustang defenders and Mount Carmel never looked back, taking down St. Rita 39-10.

“It felt good bouncing back like that after a tough loss,” Elliott said. “It felt good coming back.”

Mount Carmel (9-1) didn’t waste time building off of Elliott’s run. After the Caravan defense forced a Mustangs 3-and-out, Mount Carmel drove from its own 26-yard line and scored on a 15-yard run from Darrion Dupree to make it a 14-0 game with 7:49 left in the first quarter.

The Caravan forced another 3-and-out on the Mustangs’ next drive and started their drive on the Mustangs 15 after a mishandled punt because of the rain. Alonzo Manning scored on a 3-yard run to make it 20-0 Mount Carmel with 5:58 left in the first quarter.

“Start fast, finish strong and set the tone, give them no hope,” Elliott said. “They came here thinking they had nothing to lose, with a little bit of hope, we just shut it down real quick.”

St. Rita earned a field goal just before the end of the first quarter but Mount Carmel controlled the pace of the game. The Caravan took a 26-3 lead when Martin Markett returned an interception for a touchdown with 11:07 left in the second quarter.

Elliott found Darrion Gilliam for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 33-3 with 5:14 left in the second quarter and the Caravan added a couple more field goals to round out the scoring.

Elliott completed 14 of his 22 pass attempts for 168 yards and also rushed for 91. Dupree ran for 41 and caught for 14 yards while Manning finished with 49 rushing yards.

Caravan coach Jordan Lynch thought his team had one of its better weeks of practice after the Loyola loss and looked determined to shake off an unfamiliar feeling.

“Football’s not like baseball or basketball, you can’t turn around and play the next day, you have to wait a whole week,” Lynch said. “If you lose a game in the playoffs, you have to wait a whole year. … Our kids aren’t used to losing, I’m not used to losing.”

St. Rita (5-5) played without starting quarterback Jett Hilding, who was out with an injury suffered in last week’s loss to Brother Rice. Steven Armbruster started the game and completed one of his six passes before Tommy Perry came in during the second quarter. Perry finished the game with 125 passing yards and a touchdown while running DJ Stewart had 73 rushing yards.

“It felt good bouncing back like that after a tough loss. It felt good coming back.”

—  Jack Elliott, Mount Carmel quarterback

The Mustangs couldn’t overcome a quick start from a determined Mount Carmel team, which led the St. Rita losing its fifth straight against the Caravan and a seventh game all-time in the playoffs.

“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot as much as possible and they made a lot of plays again,” St. Rita coach Martin Hopkins said.

Mount Carmel will play Prospect in the second round of the playoffs. The Caravan feel confident after a get-right game, and they know what they need to do to defend their 7A title.

“We’re in a good spot,” Elliott said. “There’s only one way up.”