St. Francis shuts out Sycamore to set up rematch with Nazareth in 5A semifinals

SYCAMORE – There wasn’t a doubt in Ian Willis’ mind about what led to St. Francis’ 10-0 win against Sycamore on Saturday in a Class 5A quarterfinal.

“Our defense came out and played their hearts out the whole game,” Willis said. “We struggled at offense at times, and we’re going to have to lean that up for next week when we play Nazareth. But our defense came out, they played lights out, and they won us this game.”

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St. Francis (10-2) shut out Sycamore (11-1), the first time it had been held scoreless since Sept. 6, 2019, in a 13-0 loss to DeKalb. St. Francis will advance to face Nazareth in a rematch of a 39-36 Week 9 game, not to mention a 38-31 Naz win in a 5A semifinal last season.

Willis also had a big hand in the only touchdown of the game.

Quarterback Brady Palmer heaved up a deep bomb to Willis in the second quarter with St. Francis up 3-0. Thatcher Friedrichs seemed to come up with the interception, but Willis didn’t give up on the play, yanking the ball away from Friedrichs on a bobble and ending up with a 26-yard catch.

Willis caught two screens later on the drive and ran twice – including a 10-yard run on third-and-2 for the game’s only touchdown with 3:20 left in the first half.

“He overthrew the ball, and I saw the dude caught the ball, so then I just hit him,” Willis said. “When I hit him, the ball just popped out. I saw an opportunity, and I just grabbed the ball. ... It played out nice, because at the end of the drive I’m the one that ended up scoring too.”

Sycamore had chances to score in the second half, with its last four drives ending in St. Francis territory, three of those at the 25 or closer. Three of the drives ended with failed fourth-down conversions, and one ended with Friedrichs missing a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter.

The Sycamore offense got to the St. Francis 7 in the final 90 seconds, but Willis ended up at defensive back guarding Carter York, who had 10 catches for 138 yards in a game in which Sycamore had just 231 yards of total offense.

“I think defensively we played great,” York said. “We just didn’t execute on offense well. ... We just wanted to limit the shots and make them work down the field.”

Quarterback Burke Gautcher wasn’t able to find York on third- and fourth-down throws, and St. Francis ran out the clock.

“My coach told me he wanted to go out there and guard [York] hard man,” Willis said. “I just went out there and did what I do best.”

Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said the St. Francis defense took away the Sycamore rushing attack. Sycamore had 18 carries for 24 yards in the contest. Sycamore had been averaging nearly 40 points per game.

“We just couldn’t get the big play offensively,” Ryan said. “We couldn’t rattle some things loose for us. It was tough sledding inside. They’re pretty big inside, and we didn’t have a running game today. They kind of took that away.

So we got kind of one-dimensional, and that hurts us.”

St. Francis had been putting up 32.1 points per game but struggled to finish drives against Sycamore. Palmer was 14 of 26 for 159 yards, including 126 in the first half. He was intercepted by Colton Sharpness in the first half. Zach Washington had five catches for 84 yards. His first two catches were for 66 yards.

Jalen Carter ran 11 times for 58 yards. Seth Valeri had eight carries for 54 yards but fumbled early in the fourth quarter. St. Francis finished with 348 yards of total offense.

St. Francis coach Bob McMillen said he challenged his team to step up defensively and stop a high-powered offense and was glad to see his team answer the call.

“I thought we had a really good game plan on what they do,” McMillen said. “Our kids were flying around making plays. [Gautcher] is an unbelievable quarterback, but we just stuck to our game plan and tried not to give up the big plays like we have in the past.”

York said he was proud of the way the season went for the Spartans, which included an Interstate 8 title, a comeback win against rival DeKalb in Week 1 and 11 straight wins to start the year.

Ryan said although the loss hurt, it doesn’t diminish what the team accomplished.

“It’s disappointing today, because you lose,” Ryan said. “But to be undefeated going into a quarterfinal game and having that at home, winning a conference championship, do all the things this group did, it’s an exceptional year.

“It’s hard. There’s only one team in each class that’s going to be happy at the end of the year.”