Bartlett no match for Brother Rice

Caesar had his legions. Napoleon had his artillery. Patton had his tanks.

The Brother Rice football team has its receivers. Lots of them.

Pair that group with quarterback Cam Miller, the Chicago Catholic League Blue Division Most Outstanding Offensive Player, and the result was a 49-21 loss for Bartlett in the first round of the IHSA Class 8A playoffs Friday night.

The Hawks finished the season 5-5, after a 1-4 start. The fifth-seeded Crusaders, now 9-1, move on to play South Elgin, which beat Evanston 62-10 Friday.

Miller went 13-for-14 passing for 319 yards and 6 touchdown passes - all in the first half. His favorite target was 6-foot-2, 195-pound receiver Ricky Smalling, a junior who had 5 receptions for 162 yards, and touchdown catches of 55, 67 and 23 yards.

Senior Julian Blain, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound receiver, added a pair of catches for 70 yards, both for touchdowns, of 6 and 64 yards.

Branden Houston had 4 catches for 55 yards, and reserve Patrick Murphy chipped in 3 for 37 and a score.

All that could have left Bartlett coach Tom Meaney with a bad taste in his mouth, but he took a different tact, focusing on the season-long efforts of his 45-member senior class to get back to the playoffs, a place the Hawks hadn't been since 2012.

"This is the biggest group of seniors we've ever had, and their goal was to get to the playoffs their senior year and they made that goal," Meaney said. "We were just hoping we'd win a few more along the way and get a better seed. You're playing one of the better teams in the state, top-10 team in the state, it's tough.

"We were happy to make the playoffs, but we were hoping to make a little more noise and keep it closer and we weren't able to do that tonight."

And despite the fact that they were down 49-0 at halftime and faced a running clock throughout the second half, the Hawks didn't roll over. No, they struck back, albeit against primarily Crusader backups.

The Hawks pulled together a 5-play, 34-yard drive that resulted in a 1-yard touchdown run by senior Nolan Bernat with 19 seconds left in the third quarter. Brother Rice fumbled the ball away on its ensuing possession, recovered by senior lineman Miante Winters, and 5 plays later, Bartlett was back in the end zone, courtesy of a 6-yard pass from senior quarterback Brenner Wallace to fellow senior Jacob Majewski. For good measure, Wallace hit Zachary Hayes for the 2-point conversion to cut the lead to 49-15.

And Wallace, who finished 20-for-29 and 176 yards, ended the game with a 6-yard touchdown pass as time expired to Robert Pelczarski.

Still, it was a loss, one that stung for senior offensive lineman Kyle Sanft.

"We knew they were a very good team, they only had one loss, to Loyola. From what tape we saw, I thought we'd put up a better fight than 49-21," Sanft said, gesturing toward the scoreboard. "But credit them, they are a very good team."

The first half was tough to watch for the Bartlett faithful who made the 90-minute trip to Gary Little Field. The Crusaders scored on all 7 of their first half possessions, including a 55-yarder from Miller to Smalling with 8:39 left in the first quarter. On that play, Smalling caught the ball 10 yards in the flat, broke one tackle, cut to his team's sideline, broke a tackle, and cut back outside en route to the end zone.

After a pair of touchdown passes to Blain, Smalling struck again. At his team's 33-yard line, Miller dropped back and coolly lofted a floater that Smalling caught on the run in the middle of the field and outraced his defender into the end zone. Four plays, 67 yards in 17 seconds and just like that, Brother Rice was up 28-0.

"I think the first series, our defense stopping those guys, they are big, physical team, they want to pound the ball, we stopped them, and once we got that other score, we knew we were rolling," said Brother Rice coach Brian Badke. "Play fast, good things will happen."

Bernat finished with 10 rushes for 80 yards, while senior Jason Hasenberg led all Bartlett receivers with 6 catches for 52 yards. Majewski had 6 catches for 52 yards.

But the Brother Rice defense held senior running back Ben Johnson to just 10 yards on 4 carries, after a 236-yard effort last week against Glenbard East to clinch the playoff berth. They also sacked Wallace 3 times.