IC Catholic football storms past Elmwood-Brimfield

Having played a couple of spread attacks during the regular season, Elmwood-Brimfield thought it was prepared for the offense of IC Catholic Prep.

The Knights obviously felt differently.

With quarterback Luke Ricobene throwing 5 touchdowns passes, IC Catholic stormed to a 48-7 victory Saturday in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.

"It was a great day," said the sophomore signalcaller. "Give props to the line, they gave me all day to throw and the wide receivers did the rest. I think all of the starting wide receivers scored a touchdown and that's great."

Indeed, Ricobene spread the ball around, connecting with five players for completions and four for scores. A 16-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Cheng put the home team on the scoreboard less than two minutes into the contest. After the visitors answered with a 25-yard TD run, he tossed a pair of 30-yard scoring strikes to Pat Guinan and a 21-yarder to Pat Jordan.

"Luke is a special player and he is only a sophomore," IC Catholic coach Bill Krefft said.

Jordan Rowell then sandwiched a pair of touchdown runs around an 8-yard end zone throw to Luke Calles. Running behind the offense line of Jimmy Kenneally, Dylan Packer, Jack Lamborn, Jesus Unzueta and Jeremy Annicella, Rowell gained 149 yards on 15 carries and Ricobene finished 22 of 30 through the air for 280 yards.

"We have Jordan in the backfield and he helps me out tremendously," Ricobene said. "Defenses are always keying on him and when they do key on him, that gives our wide receivers a chance to get into space and do their work. We kept throwing those little screens and then did some pump fakes on them."

Equally impressive was the Knights' defense, which shut down the double-wing offense of the Trojans (9-2). IC Catholic yielded only 8 first downs and 3 yards passing.

"Roger Kelley, our defensive coordinator, did a nice job with the game plan," Krefft said. "We hadn't seen that (kind of offense) all year. He kept us in our base defense and allowed the guys to play fast."

IC Catholic will hit the road for its first quarterfinal game since 2008, when the Knights went on to bring home a state championship. The squad will play at undefeated Princeton co-op at 5 p.m. next Saturday.

"It feels great and we are very excited," Ricobene said. "Being with our brothers for another week, it's so much fun."