Joliet Catholic overpowers Peoria High, eventually, in 5A opener

PEORIA – It was a bit of a trying day for Joliet Catholic.

The bus originally scheduled to transport the Hilltoppers to their opening-round Class 5A playoff matchup with Peoria High malfunctioned, sending school administration into a bit of a panic in finding replacement vehicles to transport the team to the game on a school day when pretty much every other bus was being using for its usual daily purpose.

Once transportation was located, of course the Hilltoppers hit traffic, and that caused the game to be delayed by 30 minutes.

So once Joliet Catholic finally got to the venue, it wasn’t difficult to understand they wanted to switch as seamlessly as possible into playing mode. And that’s what the Hilltoppers did, doing what they’ve always done at their best – running it down, over and around their opponents – in breaking away for a 40-16 win over Peoria High.

Joliet Catholic (7-3) will now host Triad (7-3) in the second round of the playoffs. Triad defeated Mahomet-Seymour 20-19 in their opening-round playoff encounter. Date and time of that gave have yet to be determined.

With a steady rain complicating things in the first quarter, it appeared Peoria might be the aggressor. On its second possession of the game, Peoria went on the march with a steady diet of Maliek Ross. He capped a long drive, largely made of up his carries, to give the Lions an 8-0 lead after Ross fittingly added the two-point conversion run after his 6-yard TD score.

Although Joliet Catholic was only able to trim the lead down to 8-3 on its next possession with a Patrick Durkin field goal, the formation of a plan came into focus – heavy doses of HJ Grigsby with sprinkled in contributions from other running backs.

After the Hilltoppers forced a quick three-and-out and short punt, Grigsby carried the ball six of the seven plays on the drive, capping things with a 4-yard touchdown run that gave Joliet Catholic an 11-8 lead after, like his running back counterpart, Grigsby followed his TD with a two-point conversion.

“We definitely came out of a little bit of a slump,” Grigsby said. “But we knew what we had to do. We came out and got physical. We just put our heads down and got it done. When we do that, we know a lot of teams can’t deal with that very well.”

Joliet Catholic amped things up in that area right after the break. Using Grigsby to start the drive just enough to get the Peoria defense to key on him, JCA then slipped the ball to Larry Stringham going the other way for a 29-yard touchdown jaunt.

Peoria quickly answered to push things back to 18-16, but another Grigsby-based drive amounted in six runs for Grigsby to set up first-and-goal. Stringham popped up again this time, latching onto a short pass from Andres Munoz to grow the lead to 25-16.

Grigsby would finish with 140 yards on 30 carries.

“That was about as basic as it got. I mean, I think if you look at I don’t know how many offensive plays we ran, I bet we were about 87% power,” Joliet Catholic coach Jake Jaworski said. “But that’s the look that they gave us.

“They gave us kind of like a punt rush, where all 11 guys are on the field and went along the line of scrimmage. And it’s not pretty, but it’s down, down and kicking up through it, and we’re getting 5, 5, and then it’s 12, and then it’s a big play. Credit to our guys, we just stuck with it and executed it.”

Then Peoria started to unravel. A turnover gave Joliet Catholic yet another short field to work with, and after Munoz hooked up with Marcus Washington for a big gain that put them inside the Peoria High 10-yard line, Grigsby powered his way in for a 6-yard score.

After another Peoria turnover, the Lions overplayed the run. That allowed Munoz and Washington to hook up for a 27-yard TD to close out the game’s scoring and send the Hilltoppers into the second round.

“I’m incredibly proud of our guys for coming in and overcoming all the stuff from today,” Jaworski said. “And, you know, getting down a little early, and us coaches kind of stuck to the game plan and just kind of played our style of physical football, and we just wore on them.”