Carmel rises and shines

By morning's end, Carmel Catholic's football team found itself in a halftime tie on Chicago's sunny Northwest side, its offense able to score just once and its defense the victim of a big play.

A sleepy effort?

If so, perhaps it was understandable considering the 11:15 a.m. start against host Saint Patrick at Hanson Stadium.

"They're teenagers. It's like, they're yawning in warmups," Carmel coach Andy Bitto joked of his players.

By game's end, the Corsairs' mouths were stretched wide again. This time the players were hollering happily after their 14-7 win that kept them atop the East Suburban Catholic Conference standings, tied with Joliet Catholic, which was a 28-6 winner over Marian Catholic on Friday night.

Carmel (6-2, 5-1) can earn a share of the ESCC title with a home win over Nazareth (4-4, 2-4) on Friday night. The Corsairs have won the conference crown twice, in 2002 and 2003.

Friday happens to be Carmel's homecoming.

"It worked out good, didn't it?" said Bitto, whose team clinched its 10th straight playoff berth. "I was lamenting it (initially), but it plays right into our hands."

"It's a huge game," Arizona-bound offensive tackle Mickey Baucus said. "We're going to have a lot on our minds. A lot of things have happened for us to get back a shot at (the conference championship) - (like) Marist beating Joliet (in Week 6). We've lucked out, so we got to make it count."

Carmel woke up in the second half against Saint Patrick (4-4, 2-4) in large part to its defense. The Corsairs limited the Shamrocks to 8 yards of offense and 1 first down.

For the game, Saint Patrick mustered just 130 yards.

"We came out the first couple of series and we weren't sure really what we were doing assignment-wise," Corsairs safety Matt Trippicchio said. "We had to pick it up. After halftime we came out playing fast. We executed real well, got our keys down, flew to the ball and just dominated them."

Saint Patrick struck first, scoring on its second possession of the game after an 11-yard punt placed the ball on the Carmel 42. On the next snap, quarterback Victor Balundis hit wide receiver Tim Pennino over the middle and Pennino sped into the end zone.

"We had one boo-boo (defensively) and that was off a bad punt," Bitto said. "It was a special-teams situation where they got (good) field position, took a shot at us and beat us."

Carmel responded in the second quarter with Jordan Kos (20 carries, 108 yards) capping a 15-play, 79-yard drive by plunging in from the 1.

It was 7-7 at halftime.

"They're a hard-nosed football team," Baucus said of Saint Patrick. "When we got opportunities, we made them count. It turned out enough to be a win. Even though we couldn't get into a rhythm like we did against St. Joes (a 55-8 win the previous week), we put up more points than they did and that's what really matters."

Carmel quarterback Brian Serio, who like Kos sat out the St. Joseph game with an injury, scored the go-ahead TD on a 1-yard sneak with 1:25 left in the third. A roughing-the-punter call aided the drive.

The Shamrocks had one last chance, but Trippicchio made a circus interception with 1:30 left, bobbling an intended screen before squeezing the ball between his legs.

Trippicchio led Carmel in solo tackles with 6, while Patrick Cox and Nick Keller added five apiece.

"We needed a big play at the end of the game to get our offense the ball," Trippicchio said. "I just went out there and made it happen."

Mike Cohen and Luke Venegoni had second-half sacks, before pressure also helped result in Trippicchio's first pick.

"He couldn't sneeze," Bitto said of Balundis, "much less throw a pass."