IC Catholic Prep victory over DePaul Prep is all about the adjustments
Jakobe Baldwin and IC Catholic Prep made some adjustments and blew out DePaul Academy 33-7 in their Catholic League White football opener Friday.
Baldwin, who made a trip to the chiropractor earlier in the day, found that everything was back in the right place. The sophomore rushed for 134 yards on 20 carries and scored three touchdowns in just under three quarters of play.
“My chiropractor got me right today,” Baldwin said. “I hit myself a pro adjustment and I felt real good coming in here today. I practice this week running and staying behind my offensive line. And they did a great job out there. I had to go out there and put it on the field and be patient with the ball.”
IC Catholic Prep coach Bill Krefft said his team mixed up its playcalling.
“We need to balanced,” Krefft said. “And take what is given to us. We don’t come into games saying that we are going to throw the ball or run the ball. We were able to get back into rhythm in practice this past week and that helped a lot.”
It was all IC Catholic Prep (4-0, 1-0) in the first half as the Knights built a 19-0 halftime advantage. ICCP dominated play on both sides of the ball, outgaining DePaul 260 yards to 24.
Baldwin did a fabulous job of following his linemen: Landon West, Anthony Sebastian, Duke Sims, Michael Silveyra and Cash Kasper.
Baldwin had 113 yards rushing in the first half and scored on touchdown runs of two and 14 yards. Baldwin later scored in the second half on a one-yard run.
With the running attack working, ICCP went to the air. Nate Lang completed 16-of-19 passes for 194 yards in the game. That included an 11-yard touchdown pass to Grant Bowen that made it 19-0.
“I have a lot of trust in my guys,” said Lang, a senior. “We have been fairly successful passing the ball. There are still things we can work on and clean some things up. But we had a pretty good night tonight.”
Bowen, who has more than two dozen Division-I scholarship offers, finished the game with six catches for 112 yards.
“We had great execution today because last week was just too close for us,” Bowen said, “so this week was different mentally. When we came to practice, we really wanted to put in the work.”
The ICCP defense was also superb. Led by the defensive front of Mikey Carter, Romeo Woods, Ignazio Calabria and Issac Barrientos, the Knights limited DePaul Prep (2-2, 0-1) to 10 rushing yards until the fourth quarter when the Knights began to substitute on both sides of the ball.
Jake Yost came on late in the third quarter to relieve Lang at quarterback. Yost responded well, throwing a 26-yard touchdown pass to Qual McGee for the Knights’ final touchdown.