As season goes on, Ratay gets stronger

When Michael Ratay was ruled down at the 1-yard line in the second half of Geneva's 35-21 win over Carmel Saturday in the Class 7A quarterfinals, it didn't seem to matter much when quarterback Brandon Beitzel scored on a sneak on the next play.

The touchdown, though, would have put Ratay at 42 for the season. And it certainly looked like Ratay got into the end zone before going out of bounds.

As it is, he has 41 and four short of tying the state record. If Geneva wins Friday and plays two more games, and Ratay keeps up at his pace, he should safely have the record with somewhere around 48.

Who knows. At the rate he has been scoring this year, he might have the record by the time Friday's game ends.

"He gets stronger as the year goes on," Geneva coach Rob Wicinski said. "His playoffs runs have been pheonmoal."

Wicinski was impressed, once again, with the way Ratay broke tackles Saturday.

"I saw (No.) 21 get blown up a couple times and he kept moving," Wicinski said. "It's nice to have a back who can make one guy miss, or two or three or four."

Wicinski has been hoping for a Friday game throughout the playoffs but his opponent kept choosing Saturdays. He got his wish with the Friday game against No. 6 seed Crystal Lake South (10-2) instead of Saturday.

The Vikings-Gators clash will be the only Friday night semifinal among the 16 in all eight classes.

"We love to play Friday," Wicinski said. "This is a long week, Saturday to Saturday is a long week. That extra day is messing with us. We're ready to play."

And Geneva is ready to take the final hurdle to state, something the Vikings couldn't do in semifinal losses in 2004 to Bloomington 20-7 and 2006 to Batavia 28-0 - both at Burgess Field, just like Friday.

"We've been here twice and couldn't get the job done so hopefully the third time is the charm," said Wicinski, who will know later in the week if defensive tackle Frank Boenzi will be able to return from mono. "I hope they are excited with anticipation of what can happen. It's a mature group and is going to be business as usual."

No worries: Geneva has been strong when it needs to be this year, often playing better as the game goes on. So a 14-7 deficit Saturday didn't worry senior Cory Hofstetter.

"We realize in the second half we fix everything we need to fix," Hofstetter said. "We are a good conditioned team. We come out stronger in the second almost than the first half. We get our bearings under us and go do it."

According to Geneva's statistics, Hofstetter made 8 tackles Saturday. Brennan Quinn led with 11 and had plenty of support from Bret Shannon (9), Sean Grady (7), Andrew Clausen (6) and Michael Santacaterina (6).

Wicinski praised Quinn's effort.

"He's been around for 3 years, over 300 tackles, he has not missed a game," Wiciniski said. "Every day pound, pound, pound. He's an old-scohol kind of kid. He'd love to play fullback. He is a warrior."

Double trouble: Aurora Christian junior Matt Morse certainly is catching the attention from opposing defensive coordinators. Morse missed the first four games this year with mono, but caught 4 TD passes in his first two games back. three in his third and has a total of 17 in just eight games.

Driscoll blanketed Morse Saturday, but he still made a couple key catches and finished with 6 grabs for 71 yards. And with the attention on Morse, David Zielke stepped up with 2 touchdown receptions.

"We were expecting double and triple coverage," Morse said. "We had a lot of plays in there to get other receivers to step up. It was a tremendous effort by everyone on this football team."

Like his teammates, Morse entered Saturday confident despite Driscoll's unprecented run of 7 straight state titles and 37 consecutive playoff wins.

"I knew we could do it, I knew they were a beatable team," Morse said. "We just had to come out here and do it. Driscoll is a football name and we are getting there. All the coaches had a great plan for this game."

Quarterback Jordan Roberts threw a pair of touchdown passes and now has 119 in his career. The previous state record was 95.

"I love the senior group we have," Roberts said. "This senior group we have this brotherhood, we all bond together, it's awesome."