Joliet Catholic rolls past Benet
After blanking St. Viator's Lions last week, Benet coach Gary Goforth said his Redwings were heading to a real "lion's den" this week when they traveled to face Joliet Catholic Academy in a key East Suburban Catholic Conference contest.
A more apt description for Joliet's Memorial Stadium might have been "house of horrors" as the Hilltoppers scored early and often in posting a 43-6 victory that forces Benet to win its final two games in order to qualify for the playoffs.
"The Jekyll and Hyde analogy is appropriate for us," Goforth said. "We're Dr. Jekyll against the good teams and Mr. Hyde against the teams we should beat. We didn't play like we did last week. A lot of credit for that can go to Joliet Catholic, but we didn't have the same emotion. I didn't see the same mental focus as last week; we didn't compete tonight."
It didn't help that the Redwings (3-4, 2-3) ran into a Hilltoppers squad that was still smarting from its own fright night after giving up a 14-point lead in losing to Marist the previous week.
"Last week was just one of those weeks," said Hilltopper coach Dan Sharp, who did not show his team film from the loss. "This week we played like we practiced. We learned a lot about ourselves last week, we worked hard, didn't pout and took the responsibility to do things to get better."
As they've been doing for decades, the Hilltoppers (5-2, 4-1) relied on a bruising running game to dominate the Redwings. Three Joliet backs - Jordan Lyles, Josh Ferguson and Malin Jones - all exceeded 100 yards rushing in the game as the Hilltoppers rolled up 463 yards on the ground. Ferguson had 2 touchdowns, Jones ran for 1 and Rob Cranmer blocked a Benet punt that resulted in a safety to stake the Hilltoppers to a 23-0 halftime lead.
Starting the second half with the ball, the Redwings gave a flicker of hope to their fans when they were able to advance to the Joliet 43, but Travis Jensen's first of two interceptions of Luke Terna turned the tide back in the Hilltoppers' favor, a status that was confirmed two plays later when Jones ran 51 yards to make it 30-0.
It was that kind of night for Terna, who was sacked as many times as he completed passes: 9. With 3 sacks apiece, John Broderick and Michael Madrigal were the most frequent visitors to the Benet backfield, while Cranmer added a pair of takedowns.
Benet did get on the board with 3 minutes to play when Terna scrambled 10 yards to paydirt to cap a 97-yard drive. Lyles and Ty Isaac added rushing touchdowns for Joliet in the fourth quarter.
Benet now travels to Marist next week facing a must-win situation.
"We just weren't as aggressive as I thought we needed to be, and we'll see how we adjust going into next week; we have to bounce back," Goforth said.