CCL/ESCC notes: Mount Carmel, Brother Rice square off in Class 7A quarterfinal rematch

Saturday’s Class 7A quarterfinal matchup between Mount Carmel and Brother Rice will have more attached to it than just an opportunity to move on to the semifinals.

Both teams will seek revenge against their CCL/ESCC Blue rival.

The Crusaders will try to get even after their Week 6 last-minute loss to the Caravan while Mount Carmel will try to get revenge after Brother Rice eliminated the Caravan in last season’s 7A quarterfinals.

“(The CCL/ESCC Blue) is the best conference in the state of Illinois,” Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch said. “To play one of those in the third round, man. It’ll make for a great draw, it’ll be great football.”

The first matchup between these two teams was the Caravan’s first threat of a loss. Mount Carmel’s offense turned the ball over on its first two possessions and Brother Rice scored on its first possession.

The two teams were tied at 14-14 at halftime and 21-21 at the end of the third quarter before Caravan quarterback Blainey Dowling scored the go-ahead touchdown on a run with just under two minutes left in the game.

Crusaders quarterback Marcus Brown didn’t play the end of his team’s game against Mount Carmel after suffering an injury but returned for the playoffs and helped Brother Rice score 27 points against Jacobs in the first round and 44 points against Collinsville in the second round.

Brother Rice is 4-1 since that loss to Mount Carmel after the Crusaders learned how important it is to minimize mistakes against good teams.

“We need to minimize mistakes versus really quality football teams with really, really good athletes,” Brother Rice coach Casey Quedenfeld said. “If we minimize mistakes and we finish, I like our chances.”

Although both teams will need little motivation for Saturday’s game, both coaches want to keep emotions in check. Both Quedenfeld and Lynch know what a matchup like Saturday can be for a high school athlete, and blocking everything out is what will lead to a semifinal appearance.

“If they want to continue playing, they have to earn it,” Quedenfeld said. “The way you earn it is you block everything, you have to execute and minimize mistakes.”

Wolfpack advance to program’s first quarterfinal game

St. Ignatius has had the goal of winning a state championship all season, but its 49-13 win over Grayslake Central in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs made that goal seem more attainable as the Wolfpack advanced to their first-ever quarterfinal game.

“Sometimes that can mentally be a stretch for people,” Miller said of the team’s goal of winning a state title. “We’ve been talking about it and to take another big step in that direction is huge. Our guys start to believe it’s possible.”

The Wolfpack defeated Deerfield, 48-21, in their first-round game and went on to beat the Rams last week. Miller thought unfamiliarity played a factor in the two wins since St. Ignatius’ opponents weren’t familiar with how it runs the triple-option.

Niles Notre Dame will be much more familiar in their quarterfinal game Saturday. The Dons defeated the Wolfpack in the 2018 Class 6A first round and know how to handle the triple-option.

Miller’s defense will be familiar with Niles Notre Dame’s run game out of the shotgun since that’s how CCL/ESCC White rival Fenwick likes to run its offense.

St. Ignatius is looking forward to the challenge as the group of 34 seniors who helped the Wolfpack win their first-ever playoff game last season and reach their first quarterfinal game tires to continue making history.

“It feels like we have a lot more football left,” Miller said. “Like anybody, I know that it can come to an abrupt end, but there aren’t many drags to this season. They’re just motivated to keep playing.”

The Mustangs’ passing game’s new groove

St. Rita’s passing game is hitting its groove at the right time.

After a regular season where the Mustangs used two quarterbacks in games because of a slow start to the season, junior quarterback Jett Hilding and the Mustangs have figured out how to move the ball in the air to complement their running game.

“It’s big for confidence,” St. Rita coach Todd Kuska said. “We know what we can do, it’s just putting it out there on paper and film now. We are able to throw the ball and we work on it every day as much as we work on the run game, it’s just a matter of being able to execute when the time matters.”

Hilding threw three touchdowns in St. Rita’s Class 7A second-round win over Prospect. Kuska thought the passing game succeeded because the Mustangs established the line of scrimmage and ran the ball well, which allowed them to open play-action passing and move the ball in the air.

Hilding and his wide receivers have gained confidence throughout the season after hitting different bumps throughout the year as a young group playing varsity football together for the first time. Now Hilding has the experience and is showing strides as St. Charles North will have more to think about as the two teams prepare for their 7A quarterfinal game Saturday.

“We know he’s battle-tested,” Kuska said. “It shows when he does things, it’s a confidence level that I know that he has more experience and know-how now than he did at the beginning of the year.”

RedHawks fight until the end

Marist didn’t give up in its Class 8A second-round game against York even though the RedHawks trailed 14-0 on Saturday.

The RedHawks battled back to force double overtime where they eventually lost to the Dukes, 27-21.

“I mean the guys kept fighting,” Marist coach Ron Dawczak said. “At the end of the game I told them you guys fought your butts off, they have nothing to be ashamed of. They can walk away from this game, even though it’s with a loss, with their heads up high and their chests out. They kept fighting, that’s all we can ask them to do, give max effort.”

Marist quarterback Dermot Smyth led the comeback effort, making critical plays to force overtime and then double overtime. Smyth ended his high school career throwing for 143 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 73 yards and a touchdown in overtime.

Dawczak has watched Smyth go through the ranks during his time at Marist and was proud of the effort he gave in his last game.

“He’s such a great model for the guys in our program,” Dawczak said. “He played quarterback on the lower levels, as a junior he was willing to do whatever we asked of him. We took advantage of his athleticism because he’s a great football player and he was able to make contributions for us at a different position because that is what was better for the team. We knew he was a really talented quarterback. What he did this year as a senior was not a surprise to any one of the coaches or teammates. It’s that team first attitude that he has a junior that he parlayed into having a great senior season.”

Caravans’ stalled offense

Mount Carmel didn’t struggle moving the ball in its win over Downers Grove North, but penalties stopped the Caravan from putting up more points.

The Caravan already couldn’t communicate as much as they would’ve liked in the first half because they forgot their headsets back at school, but Mount Carmel also committed six offensive holding penalties on Saturday, three of which happened on one drive in the second quarter.

Lynch wants his team to be more disciplined as the postseason progresses.

“We were killing ourselves with penalties,” Lynch said. “Every time we got some momentum or had a long run, there was a penalty, got a long throw, there was a penalty.”

CCL/ESCC postseason stats

Eight of the 11 CCL/ESCC teams won their second-round games to reach their respective quarterfinals. A maximum of 10 teams could’ve advanced since Joliet Catholic and Providence played against each other.

The eight teams is one less compared to last season’s playoffs after nine qualified to the quarterfinals.

St. Ignatius was the biggest winner after taking down Grayslake Central, 49-13, while Loyola was second with a 49-21 win over Edwardsville.

The CCL/ESCC Blue and Green divisions each have three teams each left in the postseason (Loyola, Mount Carmel, Brother Rice, St. Rita, Niles Notre Dame and Nazareth) while the White (St. Ignatius) and Orange (Providence) only have one team left.

A maximum of six teams can qualify for the semifinals since Mount Carmel and Brother Rice play each other in Class 7A while St. Ignatius and Niles Notre Dame battled in Class 6A. The CCL/ESCC can have a maximum of five teams win a state title since St. Rita, Brother Rice and Mount Carmel are in 7A.

• Joshua Welge contributed to this report.