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Class 4A playoffs: Coal City ends St. Edward's run

The weight of playing in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs for only the second time in school history didn't get to the St. Edward football team.

The weight of Coal City's offensive line did.

Giving away 100 pounds a man at some line positions, the St. Edward defense played the Coalers to a standstill for a half. But Coal City running back Jack Dibble and his mammoth offensive line capitalized on a 4-1 turnover advantage by gaining 364 rushing yards on 53 carries in a 25-20 victory at Greg True Field in Elgin Saturday.

Dibble, a senior who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in one knee as a sophomore and tore the other as a junior, carried the ball 40 times for 304 yards and 4 touchdowns. He rushed for 226 of those yards in the second half, including the 17-yard touchdown run that staked his team to a 25-20 lead with 8:51 left in the ballgame.

"That's just our game: tire them out and keep trying to run the football," Dibble said.

"He could hit those holes, just slither through there," St. Edward linebacker Chris Kelly said. "It was crazy. The kid was fast. He's a great, hard runner."

St. Edward's final 2 possessions ended in turnovers. One play after Dibble put his team ahead, Coal City's Kevin Myers blindsided Green Wave quarterback Joe Mullen, whose fumble was recovered by Brad Churnovic at the St. Edward 33-yard line.

However, the St. Edward defense forced a turnover on downs to give the offense another chance with 6:14 to play.

An 11-yard pass from Mullen to Petey deWindt followed by a pass interference call against the Coalers put the ball at the Coal City 36-yard line. Two plays later, Corey Jurzak intercepted a Mullen pass at his own 18 and returned it 22 yards.

Dibble then ran out the remaining 5:12 by carrying for 3 first downs behind huge linemen Matt Long (6-foot-5, 285 pounds), Andrew Mathena (6-5, 275) and L.J. Lightner (6-4, 260).

Already playing without defensive end Josh Von Rohr (concussion), the St. Edward defense was further diminished when senior free safety Danny Favela left the game in the second half due to injury. Twice in the first half Favela had tackled Dibble on fourth down to halt Coal City drives in St. Edward territory.

"They were too big for us," St. Edward coach Mike Rolando said. "They were big dudes. Our guys tried their hardest. They just brought a little too much. But I'm proud of them. They fought hard."

Rolando wasn't the only coach to leave the field impressed.

"That was a darn good football team," Coal City coach Lenny Onsen said of the Green Wave. "They played extremely hard. People can say what they want about their schedule and this and that, but those kids had a lot of heart out there playing. I know when they lost (Favela), that took a lot of wind out of their sail because he was a heck of a defensive player."

St. Edward's vaunted ground game was shut down by the Coalers. Junior tailback Dwayne Allen, Jr., who ran for 294 yards and 3 scores in a first-round win over Rock Island Alleman, was held to 20 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. He also lost a first-half fumble.

St. Edward gained 194 of its 250 total yards through the air. Mullen completed 14 of 28 attempts. He threw for a touchdown and ran for another but was picked twice.

Coal City took a 7-0 lead with 2:04 left in the first quarter when Dibble parlayed Brad Littleton's interception near midfield into a 2-yard scoring run 3 plays later.

St. Edward answered with 16.6 seconds left in the first half on a 3-yard run by Allen. His touchdown was set up by a 37-yard catch from Nick Duffy, who ripped the ball out of the arms of the defender. Duffy finished with 5 catches for 102 yards. Parker Czaja blocked Joe French's extra point kick to preserve Coal City's 7-6 lead at the half.

St. Edward defensive lineman Jake French recovered a Dibble fumble midway through the third quarter. The Wave then drove 57 yards in 6 plays, including a 12-yard grab by deWindt, a 15-yard reception by Trevor Loewen and a 23-yard catch by Duffy to the Coal City 7.

Mullen scored on a 1-yard sneak on third-and-goal, then he threw to Duffy in the corner of the end zone for a successful 2-point conversion, giving St. Edward a 14-7 lead.

Littleton responded by returning the kickoff 48 yards to the St. Edward 28. Dibble ran for a touchdown on the next play to draw his team within 14-13. A high snap on the point-after attempt forced an incomplete pass, leaving St. Edward ahead by a point.

After the Green Wave offense went three-and-out, the Coalers traversed 72 yards in 4 plays. Jurzak's 24-yard tote set up Dibble's 33-yard scoring run, which gave Coal City a 19-14 lead with 1:48 left in the third quarter.

Unfazed, St. Edward quickly regained the lead. Freshman Saveon Smith returned the ensuing kickoff up the right sideline 51 yards to the Coal City 23. Two plays later, Mullen found Loewen inside the front right pylon with a 21-yard touchdown pass, which gave St. Edward its last lead, 20-19 with 27.9 seconds left in the third quarter. The conversion pass didn't connect.

The defeat ended the best season in 71 years of St. Edward football. The Green Wave eclipsed the previous school record of 8 wins, became the first team from the Elgin school to finish 9-0 in the regular season, won the Metro Suburban East title and earned the program its second playoff victory.

"If you look back, we did something that's never been done before in history. That's great," Kelly said. "Even more than that we just bonded together as a team and tried to pave the ground for even more success at St. Ed's. That was the big thing, trying to leave the place better than we found it."

Rolando embraced his seniors individually after the game, thanking them for a memorable ride.

"Great year," the 10th-year coach said. "Great group of kids that learned how to buy into a team concept and how to overachieve. Together they can really achieve great things, and individually we're all nothing. They learned that lesson, and they learned to do what they were told and play for someone else. They're going to take those lessons on for the rest of their life and be successful because of it."

Images: Football playoffs round two- Coal City at St. Edward

  St. Edward quarterback Joseph Mullen walks off the field as time runs down in the fourth quarter during the Green Wave's 25-20 loss to Coal City in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs Saturday in Elgin. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
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