St. Edward tops IC; now 3-0 for first time since '02
Leading by 25 points after three quarters, St. Edward football coach Mike Rolando felt comfortable.
When Immaculate Conception pulled within 8 with two minutes left he felt like throwing up.
Inevitably the only stuff to splash his duds was Gatorade from the cooler. St. Edward reached 3-0 for the first time since 2002 with a wild 46-38 Suburban Christian Conference victory over the defending Class 2A state champions on Saturday in Elmhurst.
"That's a state champion right there, they're bigger than us, they're more experienced than us, a great program," said Rolando, shedding the "rebuilding" mantra.
"And for our kids to rise to the occasion, it's as big as it gets right now. And now we look forward - we look forward to maintaining this track and winning games."
After three quarters it looked like a standard-edition Green Wave win. St. Edward (3-0, 1-0) rode quarterback Ben Lehman's right arm for 2 touchdown passes to 6-foot-6 Zack Von Ahnen and another to 6-3 Sam Pozezinski to go with touchdown runs from Lehman and Jordan Torres to build a 26-7 lead.
"We just wanted this win so bad," said Green Wave four-year starter Shane Finnane.
That was only prelude to St. Edward and IC (1-2, 0-1) combining for 51 points and 475 yards in the fourth quarter alone, much of it from Knights quarterback Will Cronin, who overall completed 17 of 29 passes for 419 yards and 5 touchdowns.
And it wasn't enough.
"We showed that we can come back, we showed that we can do some good things with our passing attack," Cronin said. "But I don't believe in moral victories. We didn't show up to play."
Pozezinski's second touchdown catch gave St. Edward a 32-7 lead at 11:12 of the fourth. The Green Wave tried to run out the clock, and David Hoebbel did score on 7- and 26-yard runs.
But it was all call-and-response as Cronin and receivers Kyle Siranovic and Stephen Maloney found seams in St. Edward's Cover-2 defense.
Cronin hit Siranovic on 63- and 44-yard touchdown passes, Maloney on 77- and 45-yard scoring strikes. Throw in a safety and with 2:19 left the public address announcer was playing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'."
St. Edward finally restored order, Lehman passing for a first down to Pozezinski. After two 100-yard rushers in Hoebbel and Torres, two 184-plus receivers in Maloney and Siranovic, and 1,008 total yards of offense, Rolando could relax.
IC coach Mike Alberts? Different story.
"If they don't execute better than they did today we'll be lucky to win two more games the rest of the year," he said.