‘As good as advertised’ Jack Lausch, Brother Rice overwhelm Yorkville to advance to Mt. Carmel rematch

YORKVILLE – As Yorkville’s Blake Kersting cast a glance over to a celebrating Brother Rice side, cheesing for postgame photos by its fans, he conjured up one silver lining.

He now knows where the bar is set.

Brother Rice, on the short list of state title contenders in the Class 7A football playoffs, looked every bit the part Saturday at Campbell Field.

A high-powered offense led by senior quarterback Jack Lausch scored touchdowns on five of six first-half drives, and scored on all seven drives with its starters in. The Crusaders simply outmatched the host Foxes, 45-7, in a second-round game.

“We know how good we [have] got to be to be a state champion next year,” said Kersting, a junior linebacker and one of several Yorkville defenders who will be back next season. “We see what we need to be next year. We need to work in the offseason, get us ready to go.”

Brother Rice (9-2), which advanced to a rematch with CCL/ESCC Blue rival Mt. Carmel next week, was ready to go as soon as it got off the bus Saturday.

The Crusaders jumped out to a 21-0 lead before the first quarter ended. Lausch, who threw for 152 yards on 8-for-13 passing and ran for 46 yards, ran for a 15-yard touchdown on the first drive. Aaron Vaughn, who ran for 143 yards and three TDs, shed a Yorkville tackle at his legs for a 21-yard TD run and Lausch threw a 26-yard TD pass to Da’Kobie Wordlaw.

Lausch and Vaughn both added short TD runs in the second quarter for a commanding 38-0 halftime lead. Vaughn’s 12-yard TD run with 8:57 left in the third quarter started the running clock.

“They’re really good,” Kersting said. “They would just get yards on us and hurry up right back to the line. They were just really good. They could do whatever they wanted against us.”

Brother Rice received a huge scare in the first round, needing to turn away a two-point conversion in the final minute to hold off Wheaton Warrenville South 27-26. But the Crusaders removed any doubt of the outcome early on.

“We’re playing every week like our last, because it could be,” said Lausch, who is committed to play baseball at Notre Dame and also plans to play football in South Bend as a preferred walk-on. “I’m proud of the way we fought tonight. It was great to be in a game like that Wheaton game right away, to get that playoff experience. Most of the guys haven’t played in the playoffs before this season.”

The Crusaders, led by Lausch, hardly look it, with an offense that has topped 40 points in all but the WW South game.

“Our offense, it’s one of the best in the state and it will continue to get better,” Brother Rice coach Brian Badke said. “It starts up front, we got a great O-line, and then you got the weapons and the leadership of Jack, we’re in great shape.”

Yorkville needed to control clock to keep that prolific offense off the field and out of rhythm, but the opposite happened Saturday.

The Foxes went three-and-out on three of their first four possessions, setting up Lausch and Co. with a short field they cashed in on. Yorkville turned it over its next two drives, both leading to Brother Rice touchdowns.

Yorkville (6-5) finally scored with Nate Kraus’ 15-yard TD pass to Daejeion Lewis with 12.4 seconds left in the third quarter. Lewis ran for 73 yards on 13 carries and Kraus threw for 57 yards and ran for 36 for Yorkville.

“They were as good as advertised,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said of Brother Rice. “Offensively we needed to put a couple drives together, get some first downs and we knew we would have to control the ball. We were not able to keep our defense off the field. We knew it could snowball and that is what ultimately happened.”

Still, the Foxes had much to hang their hat on this season.

Yorkville made the playoffs for the third consecutive time, with an emphatic 48-26 win over Oswego in Week 9 to make it happen, then advanced to the second round for the third straight postseason.

“You look at Week 7 or 8 after the Oswego East and Minooka games, we were kind of staring down a barrel, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen,” McGuire said. “We came back the last couple weeks and did a lot of good things. But this hurts. We didn’t just come here to compete. We came here to win.”

Brother Rice, meanwhile, moves on to a rematch of its 43-36 Week 6 win over Mt. Carmel.

“It’s going to be an awesome game,” Lausch said. “I’m excited to get to work this week.”