Mount Carmel wins IHSA record 16th state championship with 7A win over Batavia

NORMAL – With roughly three minutes left in Saturday’s Class 7A state championship game, the scoreboard camera at Illinois State’s Hancock Stadium found Mount Carmel senior quarterback Jack Elliott ready to celebrate.

Elliott had a new white state championship hat on and started yelling and pointing to it once he realized that he was the stadium’s center of attention. The Caravan fans cheered him before the camera panned away to focus on the final minutes of his team’s 55-34 win over Batavia.

In a way, that moment felt surreal for Elliott. He had written that he would win three state championships at Mount Carmel when Elliott applied for a scholarship before he enrolled at the school.

But four years and three championships later, there Elliott was, leading the Caravan to an IHSA-record 16th championship.

“It paid off after four years, a lot of sacrifice, long drives, picking up other kids, taking hours at a time, taking two trains to get to school, that type of stuff,” Elliott said. “It just pays off right here. So it was pretty special.”

Saturday was a historic night for both Mount Carmel (11-3) and Elliott. The program won a third straight championship for the third time in program history. Mount Carmel’s 55 points broke the 7A title-game record of 37 that it set in 2019 and broke its own record of six touchdowns scored that it set the same year with seven Saturday.

Elliott, a Vanderbilt commit, broke the 7A state championship record for touchdowns scored in a game with seven, set by Mount Carmel’s Justin Lynch in 2019, and the record for passing touchdowns in a 7A title game with six, shared by three players.

The offense got going on the first drive and capitalized when Elliott hit senior Zander Gorman for a 29-yard touchdown. Elliott scored on a 24-yard touchdown run on the Caravan’s next drive and then found senior Cooper Lehman for a 22-yard score and sophomore Quentin Burrell for 7- and 33-yard touchdowns in the second quarter.

Elliott etched his name into the record books when he completed a 17-yard touchdown pass to junior Stephen Winkler in the third quarter. He finished with 292 passing yards and 115 rushing yards while Lehman caught five passes for 114 yards and Burrell added 46 receiving yards off three catches.

Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch knew Elliott was a special player on and off the field when he watched Elliott play in seventh and eighth grade. Once Lynch got a chance to meet with Elliott’s parents, he knew Elliott was a perfect fit for his program and the family knew Mount Carmel was perfect for Elliott.

“It’s special to me,” Lynch said. “I got to spend winning two in a row, state championships, with him. ... He’s a very special player and kids like him come around every 15 years or so.”

Lynch last played for Mount Carmel 15 years ago.

Saturday was a historic night for Batavia (12-2) even in a loss. Bulldogs sophomore quarterback Michael Vander Luitgaren broke the 7A title game passing record with 392 yards, which was previously 302 held by Wheaton North’s Mark Forcucci.

But early special team mistakes placed the Bulldogs in an early hole. Mount Carmel sophomore Tavares Harrington recovered a Batavia fumble on a kickoff that Mount Carmel eventually scored an Elliott run in the first quarter. Senior Le’Javier Payne returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown midway through the first quarter.

Batavia got on the board when junior Greyson Kelly scored on a 4-yard run with 5:25 left in the first quarter. Vander Luitgaren found junior Brett Berggren for a 26-yard touchdown with 1:21 left in the first quarter and then senior Nathan Whitwell rushed for a 1-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Vander Luitgaren added a 45- and 49-yard touchdown passes to Berggren in the fourth quarter. Berggren finished with 191 receiving yards while senior Isaiah Brown caught nine passes for 78 yards.

Saturday’s matchup was the fourth straight year the Caravan and Bulldogs met in the playoffs. Mount Carmel beat Batavia in the semifinals last season, the 2022 7A state championship game and the second round of the 2021 7A playoffs. Batavia coach Dennis Piron was still proud of what the Bulldogs accomplished despite the loss.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” Piron said. “I thought we played our butts off. And a couple things, a ball bounce your way out the other way a little bit early on there. You can’t get behind against a team like that.”

Although Elliott was proud to have his name in the IHSA record books, he was more proud of what he and his senior teammates accomplished as a team.

Four years later, he kept his word.

“Being able to leave it better than I found it and coming here and leaving it better than I found it, it’s pretty special,” Elliott said. “That’s all I can do just leave it better and I found it I think I’d done the thing I’ve done a great job.”