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Sznajder carries Benet to victory

In physical education class on Friday, Benet football coach Pat New had a simple request for senior running back Brad Sznajder.

"I told him, I need 220 (yards) out of you today," New said. "It's kind of funny."

Sznajder carried the football 39 times for 228 yards and 2 touchdowns, breaking the school's all-time and single-season rushing records along the way. The Redwings took advantage of 4 Carmel turnovers to defeat the visiting Corsairs 24-21 at Benedictine University on Friday.

Benet (5-2, 3-2 East Suburban Catholic Conference) didn't plan to give Sznajder the ball quite that much, it just worked out that way.

"He just gets on a roll, and he's one of those determined kids. In fact we probably want to limit it to about 30, because 39 is a bit much," New said.

"Whatever it takes to get the win, right?" Sznajder asked rhetorically. "That's all I want to do is help out the team."

The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Sznajder also logged considerable minutes at defensive back.

"I'll probably be pretty sore tomorrow, but it's all worth the victory, you know? I was cramping a little bit in the second half, but you've just got to stretch out on the sideline and keep pushing through. It's worth it in the end," he said.

Sznajder's workload didn't surprise Carmel coach Andy Bitto.

"I was saying on the way down here, what Benet should do is get that kid the ball more," Bitto said. "I guess I shouldn't have said it. I guess I jinxed myself. And then I also said I thought the only way we were going to lose is if we turned the ball over too much, and that's what we did."

Carmel looked strong at the start of the game, driving 49 yards on 11 plays to score on Joe Hoy's 1-yard touchdown run.

Benet tied the game at 7 in the second quarter on Sznajder's first TD run, from 9 yards out, but Carmel (4-3, 3-2) owned a 13-7 lead at halftime after running back Rondel Jamison took a screen pass 51 yards for a touchdown.

"Despite the fact we put them in a hole, I thought they did a played pretty well," Bitto said. "Their running back did a nice job on the cutback zone stuff. We had a little trouble with that, trying to slow him down. But you give a team like Benet short fields, they're going to take advantage of you, and that's kind of what happened."

After a Carmel fumble on the Corsairs' first possession of the second half, Benet went 27 yards for Sznajder's second touchdown of the game, taking a 14-13 lead.

A Matt Tromp 21-yard field goal on the next Redwings possession made it 17-13, and the Redwings added their final TD with 2:55 to play following senior Coleman Crouch's 63-yard interception return to the Carmel 15-yard line. Quarterback Jack Sznajder threw to Karl Schmidt from 12 yards out for the score.

Carmel closed the gap with 1:37 left on Hoy's 5-yard TD reception from quarterback Michael Huiras, but Benet senior Jeff Feigenbaum recovered the onside kick, and Carmel couldn't get moving again when it did get the ball back with 1:12 remaining.

The victory ended a two-game losing streak for Benet.

"This is huge," Brad Sznajder said. "You never want to go on a downward spiral, and I'm really proud of the way we bounced back. Last year we lost a couple, couldn't really get it going again. I'm just really proud of this group of guys for the way they responded to adversity."

Benet senior defensive back Andrew Valadka suffered a neck injury early in the third quarter and was taken by ambulance to Edward Hospital in Naperville. He was moving his fingers at the hospital, school officials said after the game.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz

Images: Carmel at Benet Academy football

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