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Football: Joliet Catholic rolls past rival Morris
Updated: November 23, 2011 9:34PM
The monkey is off the collective back of the Joliet Catholic football team.
Now it’s time to go back to work in pursuit of a 14th state championship.
After three gut-wrenching visits to Morris, Joliet Catholic played well in every phase of the Grundy County match-up Friday night in rolling to a 41-7 victory over the Redskins in Round 2 of the Class 5A playoffs.
The Hilltoppers (9-2) will entertain Rich East or travel to Washington in next week’s quaterfinals. Morris (9-2) was the No. 1 seed in this 5A quadrant but fell victim to the Hilltoppers’ explosive offense and ball-hawking defense.
“I just told the guys they made history,” said jubilant Joliet Catholic coach Dan Sharp, whose teams lost at Morris in the 2005 and 2006 playoffs and in the regular season in 2006.
“They’re the first to win on this beautiful, sloppy field.”
Ty Isaac scored five touchdowns for the Hilltoppers, giving him 37 for the season, within two of J.R. Zwierzynski’s school record. Included were scoring runs of 97 and 79 yards in the second half. The 97-yarder was within a yard of Zwierzynski’s school-record 98-yarder.
But it was a 72-yard scoring burst by Isaac’s wingback buddy Malin Jones that jump-started the Hilltoppers, giving them a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Jones finished with 150 yards in 12 carries, Isaac with 211 in 15 as the Hilltoppers rushed for 407 yards and totaled 434.
“Those are two special kids,” Morris coach Alan Thorson said of Isaac and Jones. “I’ve watched them on film all week, and after seeing them tonight, they’re the two best backs I’ve seen in the five games I’ve been involved with against Joliet Catholic.”
But at that, Morris didn’t help itself in falling behind 21-0 at halftime.
“Our kids fought. But we had terrible field position and our offense struggled the whole first half,” Thorson said. “The biggest thing we had to do was keep their offense on the sideline, and we did the opposite. We put them right back on the field.”
When Morris did trek into JCA territory, the Hilltoppers used four interceptions, three on fourth-down plays, to help turn them away. Adam Collins had two picks, returning one 39 yards to midfield and grabbing the other in the end zone. Matt Madrigal and Grant Harrison also intercepted.
“Their quarterback (Austin Bolton) is one of the best athletes we have faced,” Sharp said of the senior who hit 16 of 33 passes for 167 yards and rushed for 84 in 15 carries. “He’s slippery and throws the ball well. When we didn’t contain him, he made plays.
“But our red-zone defense was as good as I have ever seen at Joliet Catholic. What a defensive effort, and what a job by our defensive coaches.”
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