Benet falls to JCA
If Grantland Rice were still around, he might laugh at a comparison of Joliet Catholic's four-headed monster to his imagery of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen.
Statistics don't lie.
The Hilltoppers threesome of running backs Josh Ferguson, Malin Jones, and Tyler Reitz even without Ty Isaac torched Benet Academy for five combined touchdowns in a 45-0 win Thursday night at Benedictine University.
“The fact that we have such a good set of running backs, all three running backs run so well, it's hard for them to defend and take one guy out,” Joliet Catholic coach Dan Sharp said. “We can use some misdirection, they have to defend all 10 gaps in our double-wing offense and that makes it difficult at times. They were doing some creative things defensively that caught us off guard, but when you commit so many people to the front, if we pop one, those guys can take it all the way very quickly.”
Joliet is 8-1 on the year and finishes 6-1 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference after rolling up 273 yards of offense in the first half and 437 for the game, while holding the Redwings (5-4, 2-4) to just 23 yards rushing.
“The whole secondary played well and our D-line when you can get pressure with four guys, which is a key, you can use more people in coverage,” Sharp said.
Ferguson scored on runs of 1 and 63 yards, while Jones carried 10 times for 129 yards and scored from 50 yards out on the game's second play as the pair did all their damage in just over two quarters of work.
“It was a little counter play,” Jones said about his score. “I can't really take credit for it. The offensive line great pull, great trap. I think I made one move in the open field. Just a great play design and call by the coaches.”
Ferguson's one touch in the second half was a run up the middle where he hurdled a few defenders before cutting back left for the long touchdown.
“We had a pretty good gameplan,” Ferguson said. “We knew their defense well from Montini. We just wanted to come out and execute. It's awesome to (set the tone early). Our offensive line played well and opened up some great holes for us today.”
Reitz added another 70 yards rushing and two touchdowns in replacement of Isaac as the backfield tailback in the misdirection offense.
“Reitz is a good runner, a good blocker and he's a tough kid,” Sharp said. “He's about half of Ty's height, but he creates some other problems for the defense that Ty may not.”
Hilltopper's quarterback Breshion Tucker only needed to pass to keep Benet off-balance, completing passes of 32 and 15 yards to Alex Kolodziej, the latter which went for a second quarter touchdown.
Benet quarterback Nick Mankowski's feet were the only thing that allowed the Redwings to move the chains, rushing for a team-high 24 yards. Benet had just four first downs on the night.
“I tried to do it at halftime when we were down,” Benet coach Patrick New about taking back momentum to be ready for the playoffs. “I told them we had to win the second half. We couldn't win the second half either. It was a tough one. … My disappointment comes in the fact that we weren't ready to play tonight mentally and in our hearts.”