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SYCAMORE – For the second straight year, Sycamore faced a private school in a Class 5A state semifinal. And for a second straight season, the Spartans were denied a trip to state.
Nazareth scored a late touchdown, its first of the game, then held off a Sycamore drive for a 10-7 win over the Spartans and a trip to the Class 5A state title game against Peoria on Saturday in Champaign.
“We gave it our all,” Sycamore senior linebacker Ethan Bode said. “Everyone’s hurting. We gave it our all. We thought we had it. That’s all you can ask for, really.”
Sycamore (12-1) led 7-3 at halftime. Nazareth (9-4) had put together a little drive early in the fourth quarter, but Kiefer Tarnoki intercepted Malachuk, the sophomore quarterback’s second pick of the game.
But the Roadrunners once again clamped down on the Sycamore offense and forced a punt. They over again on the Sycamore 20 with 4:52 left. It took them a little more than 2 minutes to march down the field for the winning score.
“I think we needed to make a big play to get a turnover,” Bode said. “But they were running fast, and we were kind of on our heels a little bit. We also had them at the end, too. But they’re athletic. They have athletes. They’ll make plays, you have to expect it out of them. You can’t stop them forever. You give up 10 points and that’s good. We’d have loved to have that stop though.”
[ Photos: Sycamore, Nazareth football meet in state semifinal ]
That still left the Spartans about 2 1/2 minutes to try to tie the game or retake the lead. Quarterback Eli Meier, a recent Class 5A All-State selection, hadn’t completed a pass before the final drive but then rattled off six straight to bring the Spartans down to the Nazareth 30 with less than a minute left.
Under pressure, Meier scrambled on a first-and-10 with less than a minute remaining but was intercepted by Lesroy Tittle. Zach Hayes had an interception earlier in the game off of Meier.
“We didn’t score enough points,” Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. “I didn’t give us enough chances to score enough points.”
Nazareth had the first scoring chance of the game, driving down to the Sycamore 10. But Carter York had a big tackle on the sideline to stop Taylor on a sweep, then Lincoln Cooley sacked Malachuk on third down. Facing a fourth-and-goal from the 21, Meier intercepted Malachuk at the goal line and took it out to the 7.
That led to the Spartans’ first scoring drive of the game, going 93 yards on 11 plays without ever facing a third down. Tyler Curtis handled most of the work on the drive and capped it off with a 9-yard scoring run and finished the day with a game-best 110 yards on the ground.
Nazareth got three points back before halftime, again getting into the Sycamore red zone. This time, the Roadrunners elected to bring Hayes out for a 33-yard field goal and he made it with 47.9 seconds left.
“I’ve been blessed to reach a lot of state titles as a head coach, but this team, I’ve never had a 5-4 team that squeaked into the playoffs, winning by a safety Week 1 to get here,” Racki said. “I wasn’t focused on that back then when we were scratching to get into the playoffs. I was focused on the growth. The big teams we lost to, some of those teams are still playing or lost in the quarters and we made progress against those teams. We sparring against the big boys, and you hope that helps you when you get to the tournament.”
Last year, the Spartans lost in the 5A semis to Fenwick, which went on to a state title.
“It’s really hard to make it to the semifinals two years in a row, and the landing is hard,” Ryan said. “The landing is hard when you lose games like this. That’s the hard part. But when you look back at the totality of it, it was pretty stinkin’ good.”
The Spartans featured nine players who were three-year starters. Given the success of the team – 27-4 record, two undefeated regular seasons and two semifinal appearances – Ryan said it was a good run for his senior class.
“They started back in the spring of COVID season going 6-0, then made it to the semifinals last year, then they made it to semifinals this year,” Ryan said. “I think the legacy is pretty strong.”
Bode, one of those three-year starters, agreed.
“12-1 now, that’s pretty good, I’d say,” Bode said. “Losing to a private school in the playoffs, in the semifinals. I’ve had two straight semifinal appearances. I thought we were going to a state championship. But we had a great season, honestly. Everyone worked their [butts] off all season. We can’t be disappointed in what we did this season. We should be proud of what we did cause we played very well every game.”