There was a buzz in the air at Triton College Friday night as the Fenwick football team welcomed St. Laurence for a key Chicago Catholic League/East Suburban Catholic Conference White Division game. Both entered the contest with 4-1 records and needed one more victory to secure state playoff eligibility. While the records suggested a close game, Fenwick took control early on and ran past St. Laurence 41-7.
“[St. Laurence] is a better team than what the scoreboard showed,” said Fenwick coach Matt Battaglia. “It’s more of a testament to the coaching and hard practices we had this week. We executed in a lot of areas that we were lacking. We felt we’d plateaued a little bit as a team; we want to get better each week and the thing we saw was a lot of facets got better.”
“It was a great team win,” said Fenwick running back Jake Thies, who finished with 97 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. “We came out and did what we were supposed to do, and it showed on the scoreboard.”
After getting a three-and-out on defense to start the game, Fenwick’s offense marched downfield on eight plays, with Jake Thies capping things with a 6-yard score. Noah Sur’s point-after gave the Friars (5-1, 1-1 CCL/ESCC) a 7-0 lead at the 6:24 mark of the first quarter.
On St. Laurence’s next possession, the Vikings (4-2, 0-2) decided to go for a first down deep in their own territory. They failed, and Fenwick took over at the 20-yard line. Five plays later, Tommy Thies went in from a yard out to make the score 14-0.
In the second quarter, Sur booted successive field goals from 33 and 25 yards respectively. Then set up by Jake Thies’ 57-yard run, quarterback Jamen Williams (12-of-17, 193 yards passing) ran for a 1-yard score to give Fenwick a commanding 27-0 halftime lead.
To start the second half, Cameron Garrett put the proverbial nail in the Vikings’ coffin when he took the kickoff and ran it back 80 yards for a touchdown.
“I hadn’t gotten it kicked to me all year, so I saw the hole and I hit it,” Garrett said. “That’s what we’ve been doing in practice, and I took it to the house tonight.”
Another sensational play came on Fenwick’s next possession when Raphiel Stewart made a one-handed grab of a Williams pass and took it to the endzone for a 44-yard score.
“It was a last-minute adjustment,” Stewart said. “[The defender] was holding me and I had to put one hand because that’s all I had. Jamen threw a great ball, and (receivers coach Tim Rooney) had coached me up a lot on the one-hand catch. It was amazing.”
Stewart’s touchdown catch made the score 41-0 with 8:31 remaining in the third quarter and necessitated a running clock for the remainder of the game. St. Laurence averted the shutout in the fourth quarter with a six-yard touchdown run by Noah Taylor.
Fenwick likes how things have gone so far this season, but to a man, the Friars feel they have yet to play their best game and are striving to get better.
“We’re feeling great,” Stewart said, “but we have to keep on going. We can’t think now that we’ve got a playoff spot, we can slow down.”
Up next for Fenwick is the regular-season home finale versus Benet Academy. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m., Oct. 10, at Triton.
Downers Grove North 21, OPRF 0
OPRF football has played several of the top West Suburban Silver schools tough this fall. But outside of a victory at Proviso West, the Huskies have not been able to get over the hump.
Friday night at Oak Park Stadium, OPRF (2-4, 1-3 WSC Silver) had the ball twice in Downers Grove North’s red zone in the first quarter but couldn’t cash in. The missed opportunities proved costly in the Huskies’ 21-0 defeat by the Trojans.
Liam Smith had 64 yards on 14 carries for OPRF, which had just 154 yards of total offense. Defensively, John Matz led the Huskies with 4.5 tackles.
OPRF welcomes Lyons Township for Homecoming, Oct. 10. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.