Mascoutah defeats powerhouse Joliet Catholic, advances to Class 5A semifinals
It’s on to the state semifinals for Mascoutah’s football team.
The 12-seeded Indians traveled north to Joliet Catholic on Saturday and came away with an impressive 21-14 upset of the ninth-seeded Hilltoppers in an IHSA Class 5A quarterfinal game.
Devin Wills’ 1-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds left capped an 18-play drive and secured the win for the Indians. Logen Timmon added the point after, as the Indians improved to 9-3.
The Indians, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Class 3A state crown, advance to face No. 2 seed Rochester (11-1) in the state semifinals next weekend. This was Mascoutah’s first appearance in the state quarterfinals since 2008.
“I’ve been a diehard football kid since I was 5 years old, I know what Joliet Catholic is. They are an institution. They are football royalty,” Mascoutah coach Josh Lee said. “Our kids are a little bit far removed from it. We’ve got a lot of military kids, kids that aren’t even from Illinois. So they didn’t really even know that they were such a powerhouse. And we certainly tried to use that to our advantage, we told them that they don’t even know who you are.”
Kenyetta Williams put Joliet Catholic ahead with a 66-yard touchdown run just 51 seconds into the proceedings. Mascoutah drew even a few minutes later when Devon Ross connected with Aidan Jones for a 21-yard scoring strike. Timmon booted the point after.
Still knotted 7-7 at halftime, Wills’ 80-yard scamper, followed by Timmon’s extra point, put the Indians ahead 14-7 with 8:41 left in the third quarter. Jordan Anderson’s 38-yard run and Acosta’s point after less than two minutes later tied the score.
The game remained deadlocked until Wills’ touchdown run. Wills finished with 141 yards rushing on 19 carries.
Mascoutah’s defense continued to be of the bend-not-break variety as Jordan Anderson and Williams combined for 267 yards rushing for the Hilltoppers. But come crunch time the Indians willingness to risk it all to force Joliet Catholic into offensive attacks they weren’t really comfortable with paid huge dividends.
“We always try to take away the other team’s best run play and we were going to sell out to do that and have eyes in the right spot,” Lee said. “Let’s make them put in the air and have our athletes chase it down and stop play A and B and see how it works out for us. And it worked out pretty decent.”
Joliet Catholic, the most successful high school football program in state history with 14 state championships in 18 title game appearances, finished at 8-4.
“They didn’t surprise us, I know there was a lot of talk about them not being very strong,” Joliet Catholic coach Jake Jaworski said. “But what we saw on film was a big football team and a running back that was just a stud. They were active and physical. It wasn’t surprising that was a good football team.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 9:01 PM.