The answer's 'yes': Carmel tops Viator
How could Jessie say no?
There she was on the football field, surrounded by a swarm of fellow Carmel students who were basking in a homecoming victory.
They all took a knee and came to a hush as Jessie stood next to running back Jordan Kos. He presented her with a lovely bouquet of flowers that he had secretly stored in some water near the Gatorade coolers for the entire game. Then, he promptly asked her to Saturday's big dance.
When Jessie said yes with a big hug, it was the perfect cap to the evening for Kos, who did his best to impress his potential date from kickoff to final buzzer.
Kos scored a career-high 5 touchdowns and rolled up 214 yards on 19 carries as the Corsairs got a 51-32 victory, ultimately overpowering a pesky St. Viator team that went toe-to-toe with them for almost three-fourths of the game.
Carmel, which improves to 5-2, stays in the race for the East Suburban Catholic Conference title. The Corsairs are 5-1 in league play. St. Viator, meanwhile, drops to 1-6 (0-6 ESCC).
"I needed to think of something really good because I waited too long to ask (Jessie to the dance) because it's tomorrow," Kos said. "So I went out this afternoon after school and got the flowers and made sure I could keep them in water (during the game).
"I planning to ask her like that regardless ... bad game or good game. It just worked out well this way."
It sure did.
Carmel, up 21-10 at halftime, finished with a 30-point second-half flurry that might have been more impressive than Kos' romantic gestures.
Midway through the third quarter, the surging and pass-happy Lions scored a touchdown on a 23-yard pass from quarterback Mickey Macius to Kevin Hammarlund that cut a deficit that was as large as 11 points to just 3 points at 27-24.
But then, over the next 12 minutes, Carmel scored 3 straight touchdowns and kicked a field goal to finally take decisive control of the game.
"They played great," Carmel coach Andy Bitto said of St. Viator. "They caught like 10 passes that were behind their heads and everything. They made great plays.
"I don't know that I ever thought we were going to lose the game, but they certainly had us on the run."
Speaking of the run, the Corsairs had no problems there. They rolled up 335 yards on the ground. Kos had a field day running mostly up the middle while running back Mike Panico and quarterback Brian Brennan (72 rushing yards) used their speed to hit the outside lanes.
Brennan and Panico also kept the St. Viator defense honest by hooking up for some big plays in the passing game. Brennan completed 5-of-7 passes for 83 yards, 46 of which went to Panico. Panico hauled in 4 catches, including a 10-yard touchdown.
Matt Maher also caught a touchdown pass from Brennan (37 yards).
"Our offensive line ... I believe we have the best offensive line in Lake County," said Kos, who is 6 touchdowns away from tying Carmel's career record set by Jimmy Potempa. "Mike and Brian were tearing it up on the outside and there were big gaps in the middle.
"We weren't nervous (about St. Viator hanging around for so long). But we were definitely disappointed about how we played in the first half on both sides of the ball and coach talked to us at halftime and got everyone jacked up."
The Lions were revved up thanks to the spectacular production they got from Macius, who wound up completing 20 of 40 passes for 270 yards. He also threw 3 touchdown passes, two of which went to Kevin Hammarlund (10 catches, 117 yards).
"(The passing game) really just opened up for us," Macius said. "Our offensive line gave great protection. I had a ton of time and our receivers were getting open. Everyone felt like we were finding the holes in their defense. We believed we could go one-on-one with their corners and beat them deep and we did successfully for three quarters.
"We were confident from the beginning. It's just that we needed to keep that going into the fourth quarter and we weren't able to do that."