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Morris faces Joliet Catholic in the semifinals of the 2024 Class 5A IHSA football playoffs. Friday Night Drive reporter Rob Oesterle will have live updates, scores and news from the game.
What to know
Morris vs. Joliet Catholic kickoff: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Joliet Memorial Stadium
Morris-Joliet Catholic preview
About Morris: Morris continues to make a mockery out of its No. 13 seed in the Class 5A bracket, as it beat its third consecutive considerably higher seed – last weekend top-seeded in Morgan Park in the quarterfinals. This run was probably one that most people didn’t see coming from Morris, considering that it dropped three of its last four games of the regular season, but this is clearly a different version of that team. Finally mostly healthy, Morris has all of its offensive components in place, and its defense is clearly playing the best football it has played all season right now. Containing an explosive Morgan Park offense to one touchdown bears further witness to how well the unit is playing. Morris doesn’t have a great history with Joliet Catholic in the postseason – including a lopsided loss last season – but with the level of confidence Morris seems to be playing with right now, it has to believe a victory is possible.
About the Hilltoppers: When the 5A bracket was released, it appeared Joliet Catholic’s road would be one where it might be able to flex some of the muscle it developed playing a rigorous CCL/ESCC schedule. That’s exactly what has happened. The Hilltoppers have routed all three of their opponents in the bracket thus far, as their ground game – paced largely by the efforts of Larry Stringham and Nate Magrini – has been far too much for opponents to stop. And as good as the offense has been, the defense might be performing even better. All three of Joliet Catholic’s postseason opponents haven’t had any problems scoring points in most of their games this season, especially quarterfinal foe Peoria High, but the trio could seemingly do almost nothing right against the Hilltoppers.
FND pick: Joliet Catholic