DePaul Prep completes historic run, captures Class 4A IHSA state championship

NORMAL – DePaul Prep seniors Juju Rodriguez, Nick Martinez, Charlie Pribyl and Nicholas Hathcoat sat behind a table with microphones and Gatorade bottles in front of them inside Illinois State’s Kaufman Football Building Friday night trying to figure out what had just happened.

The group of seniors went into the fall with a goal of winning a state championship after falling a game short of qualifying for the playoffs last season. Now, three months later, the group of seniors sat there in front of reporters with their head coach Mike Passarella.

[ Photos: DePaul Prep vs. Mt. Zion ]

The Rams were ready to tell their championship story after beating Mt. Zion 40-6 to win the Class 4A state championship, the program’s first since changing names from the former Gordon Tech in 2014.

“We just needed a chance to prove it to everybody in this year,” Rodriguez said. “I think we proved it to everybody that we’re contenders. We can play with anybody in the state and we can win it all if we got the opportunity to, so I think it’s just big for the program.”

DePaul (11-3) went into the postseason seeking its first playoff win since switching names from Gordon Tech. Friday’s championship ended the Rams’ second trip the playoffs, their first since 2015. Gordon Tech reached the playoffs 11 time during its history, winning the Class 6A title in 1980.

After a three-and-out to start the game offensively, the Rams found their groove with a balanced second drive. DePaul converted on two third downs and a fourth down, eventually taking a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard run from Martinez with 1:42 left in the first quarter.

The Rams took advantage of a 3-yard punt that gave them the ball on Mt. Zion’s 29 yard line when Rodriguez scored on a 29-yard touchdown run to make it 13-0 as time expired on the first quarter.

“Today I was finally able to break a run,” Rodriguez said. “Then after that we just started getting things going.”

DePaul kept building its lead when Martinez scored on a 5-yard run with 11:04 left in the second quarter to make it 20-0. Martinez added a 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter while Hathcoat scored on a 34-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Rodriguez completed 5-of-12 passes for 64 yards and rushed for 47 while Martinez earned 100 yards and three touchdowns off 19 carries. Hathcoat added 91 rushing yards on four carries with a touchdown.

Despite a slow start, the Rams remained confident in their offense that averaged 27.7 points per game heading into Friday’s championship.

“I was just really confident in our game,” Martinez said. “I knew my offensive line would give me all the space I needed to run. Yeah, it was basically just like confidence factor.”

Mt. Zion (10-4) couldn’t gain much offensive consistency for much of the game. The Braves broke up the shutout in the fourth quarter when junior quarterback Keller Stocks found senior Brayden Trimble for a 4-yard touchdown pass.

Stocks completed 6 of his 14 passes for 24 yards while Kaden Becker led the Braves with 78 rushing yards. Hathcoat intercepted a pass for the Rams while DePaul limited Mt. Zion to 146 total yards of offense.

“I thought their kids played well again,” Mt. Zion coach Patrick Etherton said. “I thought it’s kind of not the way you want to end with us. But I thought our kids, can’t say enough how proud I am our kids and what we did to get to this point.”

Friday’s win meant a lot for a program that watched other sports at the school win state championships and succeed. Passarella felt confident that eventually his program would get to that level in 2019.

All of a sudden, he was there on a stage Friday night with his players explaining how they got there.

“They fought through a lot,” Passarella said. “They wanted to be champions, they said, and put it out the beginning of the year that this is what their goal was. And they went out and took care of the goal, and here we are right now, standing on top of what we talked about the beginning of season. So they did a heck of a job, and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”