Nazareth rides dominant second half to stun JCA 38-20 in IHSA Class 5A state championship

NORMAL – Logan Malachuk finally could exhale after the frantic sprint to the finish line. He could smile a bit, too.

Nazareth was moments removed from pulling off the seemingly unimaginable.

The defending Class 5A champion, the Roadrunners entered Saturday as the first team to reach a championship game after starting 0-4 and the only finalist to ever get to a title game with five regular-season losses.

Trailing by 10 at halftime, Nazareth’s unlikely run was trending toward crushing disappointment. Behind an unanswered 31 points, 28 in the second half, Malachuk’s offense hit top gear with everything hanging in the balance.

“It means everything,” Malachuk said after Nazareth’s 38-20 comeback victory over Joliet Catholic in the Class 5A state title game at Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium.

“I mean, that just goes to show the poise that we all have and how the character has been built in us with all the adversity we’ve gone through this entire year. It built us for this moment. There’s no better way I’d want to win it,” Malachuk said after his 23-of-34 title-clinching performance for 414 yards and four touchdowns.

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Nazareth celebrates with the trophy Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, after their IHSA Class 5A state championship win over Joliet Catholic at Hancock Stadium at Illinois State University in Normal. (Mark Busch)

JCA took a 20-10 halftime lead, largely because of its dominance on the ground. JCA led Nazareth 257 to 76 in net rushing yards at the half and Hilltoppers senior running back HJ Grigsby had 223 rushing yards on 22 attempts.

It didn’t deter the march to glory for Nazareth (9-5) en route to its fifth state title in program history. JCA had only 58 rushing yards the rest of the way with Grigsby grinding through an apparent injury.

“Going into the half, I mean, we’ve been beaten up the whole year and we knew it,” Nazareth senior defensive lineman Brendan Flanagan said. “We knew they had a really good running back (Grigsby) and he showed it. He was a stud. We knew they ran behind a really good line and so our confidence (at the half) was a little down but at the same time we knew we took their best punch and we knew we were going to give it right back in the second half. ... All of us were just up and ready to go. We wanted to go out and play the second half.”

Out of the break, Nazareth kicker Andrew Fowler missed a 29-yard field-goal attempt with 7:52 left in the third quarter and the score remained 20-10. Nazareth standout Gabe Kaminski then powered through with a timely interception of Hilltoppers quarterback Andres Munoz (6 of 16, 42 passing yards) on third down inside the red zone to flip the field with 2:13 left in the quarter.

A scuffle on the Nazareth sideline because of a late hit on the return “got everybody juiced up a little bit.”

“Got a fire underneath us,” said Kaminski, who finished with 15 total tackles, 1 1/2 sacks and the interception. “We took off from there.”

Nazareth ground out an eight-play drive that was capped by Malachuk’s 3-yard passing touchdown to James Penley to pull to within 20-17 with 37 seconds left in the quarter.

Penley had a 52-yard touchdown to claim a 24-20 Nazareth lead with 9:53 remaining and Malachuk padded the lead with a 4-yard passing score to Trent Walker for a stunning 31-20 advantage with 6:32 left.

Malachuk wasn’t done. He iced the game with a 40-yard touchdown to Jake Cestone with 3:36 left to cap a banner performance.

Penley had seven catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns. Cestone had four catches for 163 yards and a TD. Trenton Walker had nine catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.

“I’ve always said this. I’ve played with him since sixth grade,” Malachuk said of Penley. “Our bond and our trust for each other, I mean, it can never be broken and it’s as tight as ever. When he knows I need a play, I know where I’m going and most of the time, it’s always to him. He knows what he needs to do and we’re all on the same page. I get him the ball and he makes plays.”

Joliet Catholic won the Class 5A title in 2018 and 2021, but was unable to sustain the dominant first half.

The Hilltoppers (10-4) struck first on a 2-yard rushing score by Grigsby with 6:34 remaining in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead. On their next offensive possession, the Hilltoppers were on the cusp of another touchdown after Grigsby’s 79-yard run. Kaminski, however, pounced on a fumble on fourth-and-goal to stave off the momentum.

Hilltoppers junior running back Nate Magrini (41 yards) added a 5-yard rushing score with 9:54 left in the second quarter, but the extra point was blocked and it was 13-0 JCA.

Nazareth’s offense broke through with a 41-yard rushing touchdown by Lesroy Tittle with 8:34 left in the half to pull to within 13-7.

JCA had a 1-yard touchdown by junior Keegan Farnaus with 41 seconds remaining, but Nazareth engineered a half-ending drive capped by Fowler knocking in a 20-yard field goal to make it 20-10.

Nazareth simply willed itself above all the noise. It had a destiny of overcoming four consecutive losses, sneaking into the playoff field at 4-5 and running the table en route to a consecutive state title.

“As everybody knows, this was not easy,” Roadrunners coach Tim Racki said. “We’ve never been through anything like this. I’m old enough to where I thought I had seen it all, but it starts with, first of all, with my coaching staff. ... When you go through an 0-4 skid, it’s easy to kind of spiral and I had really questioned myself. I never blame the kids in that, but I certainly felt like I failed them that first month of the season. So we had a lot of deep talks about where we were, how we got there, what we do well and what we need to do moving forward.”

Racki was proud of how his team responded.

“Because of the culture and a lot of guys have been in the program for more than a couple years, they bought in and I bought into them,” Racki said. “The love for each other. That’s something that never wavered at all. ... It’s really a special journey to be on. And I told them, ‘Regardless of what was going to happen today, I’m going to be bummed out after we celebrate because it’s over.’ ”