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Football: Batavia comeback ends Notre Dame’s season
| Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media
For Notre Dame’s football program, the playoffs may have technically started last weekend, but in effect, the Dons have been in the playoffs since Sept. 16.
Starting off 0-3 against one of the toughest opening slates in the state (Marist, Joliet Catholic and Carmel), the Dons’ backs were up against the wall all season long.
After winning five of their last six to get into the Class 6A field, their reward was traveling to top-seeded and undefeated Batavia in the first round Friday. And for the first half, it looked like all of that toughening up Notre Dame had to do during the season paid off.
The home crowd was stunned at the half as senior quarterback Nick Pieruccini was nearly flawless in leading the Dons to a 21-point lead.
But the second half was a different story, as the Bulldogs regrouped and rallied for a 35-28 win to advance to the second round. Notre Dame ends the season at 5-5, the seventh straight playoff appearance in which the Dons lost in the first round. They haven’t won a first-round game since doing it in 1997 and 1998.
“I’m sure it’s devastating when you’re up by 21 and you know what you need to do,” Notre Dame coach Mike Hennessey said. “You need to control the second half. It was a tale of two halves. We took advantage of some errant things that happened and made some big plays. The reverse happened in the second half.”
Pieruccini was the story early on. He was incredible in the first half, going 15-of-16 for 177 yards and three touchdowns after losing a fumble on Notre Dame’s first possession. Following a turnover, he hit Brian Regal for a 19-yard score the next play to open the scoring. He then connected with Joe Parrinello for two scores later in the half, from five and 28 yards out. Add in sophomore Chris James’ electric 79-yard touchdown run, and the Dons were sitting pretty at the half, up 28-7.
“That’s the way he’s been all season,” Hennessey said of Pieruccini. “He’s carried us on his back the entire time. He’s a tremendous athlete and tremendous player. We were going to go as far as he we was going to take us, there’s no doubt about that.”
While Batavia (10-0) was mounting its comeback, scoring on four consecutive possessions to take a 35-28 lead in the second half, the Dons struggled to move the ball. They punted on their first three possessions of the second half, gaining only 27 total yards in the process. Yet, as they showed all season, they were not done.
After Batavia took the lead with 6:14 left in the fourth, Pieruccini hit Parrinello for a 61-yard gain, giving Notre Dame first-and-goal from the Batavia seven-yard line. But Pieruccini’s next pass intended for Parrinello was picked off by Batavia sophomore Mike Moffatt in the end zone, and the Dons never saw the ball again.
“They’ve gotten this far by a lot of hard work and character,” Hennessey said. “When you start out 0-3, you can’t really afford to lose anything more. They came alive and took the reins that they needed to and did a great job to position themselves here to still be in the game in the fourth quarter and possibly win the game.”
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