Bishop McNamara hands Aurora Christian its 1st loss
Aurora Christian held a potent Bishop McNamara offense in check for the first half of the Chicago Catholic League White Division matchup, but the Fighting Irish scored 21 third-quarter points and built a big enough lead to just hold off the hard-charging Eagles, 34-28.
Aurora Christian (4-1, 1-1) had a chance to open up a lead off its own early, moving the ball right down the field with quarterback Austin Bray hitting senior wide receiver Jacolby Maxwell four times on a 13-play opening drive. But the Eagles were not able to punch it in and settled for a 25-yard field goal by Nick Van Gilse.
The Eagles' second drive was a near carbon copy of the first drive that again stalled out deep in Irish territory and this time Van Gilse nailed a 37-yard field goal.
"Those two first field goals, we put points on the board but when you play a team like this, you have to score touchdowns," said Aurora Christian head coach Dave Beebe.
Bishop McNamara (4-1, 3-0) did not have much success running the ball with star tailback Jonathan Ward. Ward had just 34 yards on 15 first-half carries but the Eagles' heavy defensive focus on him opened up the Irish passing game. Quarterback Kobe Shutter was able to connect with Chris Bell for a 32-yard touchdown early in the second quarter that gave Bishop McNamara a 7-6 halftime lead.
The Irish continued feeding the ball to Ward much of the second half. He ended up with a game-high 132 yards on 33 carries. The threat of Ward's running ability let the Irish open up the playbook in the second half when Ward took the handoff on a sweep but pulled up and threw a perfect strike to Zac Valant who was running free and scored on a 32-yard TD reception.
"They were all over Ward," said Bishop McNamara head coach Rich Zinanni. "But they were giving us the pass and we hit it a couple of times."
Ward's backfield mate Jerrico Johnson was also the beneficiary of all the attention Ward was receiving and he scored the next two Irish touchdowns, an 11-yard run and a 68-yard TD reception.
That is when the Eagles' comeback started. Bray hit Maxwell for a 61-yard TD, one of 12 catches in the game for Maxwell who also had a game-high 182 yards receiving.
"We have really been working this off-season on getting our timing down," said Maxwell of his relationship with Bray. "I think it has really translated into the games."
A poor punt gave the Eagles the ball at the Irish 43 and Nick Edlund took a screen pass from Bray and converted a huge fourth-and-11 play to the 1-yard line. Bray scored on a QB sneak on the next play and the Eagles had cut the lead to 28-21 with over eight minutes remaining.
But Bishop McNamara went to Ward and he was able to put together several runs on a drive that he punctuated with a 2-yard TD run with 1:43 to play that made the score 34-21 and effectively ended the game.
Bray hit Edlund for one last score, a 3-yard TD pass, with 40 seconds left but when the Irish recovered the ensuing onside kick, the Eagles had run out of time.
"I am so proud of this team," said Beebe. "They are not used to losing and there is a lot of fight in this team. We grew a lot tonight and we are going to get a lot better. We out of this game healthy and growing up and now I know we are going to fight. I'm proud of the kids."