Cat-quick Carmel knocks off Glenbrook N.
As Carmel football coach Andy Bitto walked through the wild celebration Saturday night at William Lutz Stadium, he realized his Corsairs had dodged a bullet in their Class 7A second round playoff game at Glenbrook North.
"I think we dodged like eight or nine bullets," he said. "I think if I was a cat, I would have used up most of my nine lives in this one."
Carmel was down, but never out. And then, all of a sudden, the Corsairs had life. All of this in the final four minutes of regulation and overtime.
It ended simply when senior Geoffrey Fields carried the ball across the goal line from 2 yards out on the Corsairs' second play in overtime, giving them a wild 28-22 overtime win over the No. 2 seed Spartans.
Carmel (9-2) is in the quarterfinals for the first time since the Corsairs won the state title in 2003 and will travel to face De La Salle (9-2), a 27-26 overtime winner over Cary Grove.
"This was just a great high school football game," Bitto said. "We made a special teams play, then (Glenbrook North) made a play -- it was just a wild game."
The Corsairs found themselves a heap of trouble after Glenbrook North junior quarterback Tom Coughlin (22-for-32, 202 yards) chewed up the usually stout Corsairs defense with a 13-play drive to open the second half to build a 16-7 lead.
Carmel needed a break and it received one courtesy of its defense. Junior Jake Sinkovec forced a North fumble and when Dan Michael pounced on it Carmel was in business at the Spartan 25.
Six plays later Fields (19 carries, 75 yards), carried it in from a yard out and Carmel was within 16-14.
But just as quick as momentum went to the Corsairs, they lost it. On the ensuing kickoff, North senior Eric Brunner picked up the squib kick and returned it 84 yards for the score in what looked to be the clincher with just over six minutes to go.
"We got that kick, and looked at the scoreboard and I think we felt like we were in control again," North coach Bob Pieper said.
Whatever momentum the Spartans had lasted a mere two minutes. On fourth down, Carmel lined up in a punt formation, but the Spartans weren't buying it. Their hunch was right as Carmel rolled out a fake punt. The ball was snapped to Ryan Williams, who broke one tackle, then another and was gone, 60 yards for the score. A David Venegoni plunge tied it at 22-22 with 4:48 to go.
"That play was supposed to go to the right, and when I saw (Ryan) go that way I was like 'no, no,' then he broke away and all I could think was 'Run!' " Bitto said.
"Coach was right," Williams said with a laugh afterward. "It was supposed to go right, but all I could think about was getting the first down, then all I could think about was scoring."
Carmel dodged one more bullet before overtime.
On a third-down pass, Venegoni was picked off by North senior standout Andrew Hoppe and his 44-yard return set the Spartans up in prime field goal position.
But on fourth down and less than an inch, the Spartans went for it and were stuffed by Michael, Dan Wifler and Mike Hiestand and Carmel survived yet again.