Joliet Catholic handles Benet

If Grantland Rice were still around, he might laugh at a comparison of Joliet Catholic's four-headed monster to his imagery of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen.

Statistics don't lie.

The Hilltoppers threesome of running backs Josh Ferguson, Malin Jones, and Tyler Reitz -- even without Ty Isaac -- torched Benet Academy for five combined touchdowns in a 45-0 win Thursday night at Benedictine University.

"The fact that we have such a good set of running backs, all three running backs run so well, it's hard for them to defend and take one guy out," Joliet Catholic coach Dan Sharp said. "We can use some misdirection, they have to defend all 10 gaps in our double-wing offense and that makes it difficult at times. They were doing some creative things defensively that caught us off guard, but when you commit so many people to the front, if we pop one, those guys can take it all the way very quickly."

Joliet is 8-1 on the year and finishes 6-1 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference after rolling up 273 yards of offense in the first half and 437 for the game, while holding the Redwings (5-4, 2-4) to just 23 yards rushing.

Benet quarterback Nick Mankowski's feet were the only thing that allowed the Redwings to move the chains, rushing for a team-high 24 yards. Benet had just four first downs on the night.

"I tried to do it at halftime when we were down," Benet coach Patrick New about taking back momentum to be ready for the playoffs. "I told them we had to win the second half. We couldn't win the second half either. It was a tough one. … My disappointment comes in the fact that we weren't ready to play tonight mentally and in our hearts."