What we learned in Week 12: CCL/ESCC still powering through fields

Apparently if CCL/ESCC teams are going to be knocked out of the playoffs, it’s going to be by one of their own.

Eight CCL/ESCC teams moved into the semifinals with Loyola, Mount Carmel, St. Francis, Nazareth, Joliet Catholic, Providence, Montini and St. Laurence all claiming wins.

Three bowed out, as IC Catholic, St. Ignatius and Carmel all took losses and all three of them came at the hands of other CCL/ESCC teams. Through three rounds, only one CCL/ESCC team has been ousted by a nonleague team: Batavia’s win over Brother Rice in the opening round.

Class 5A is now guaranteed to have both of the teams represented in the state championship game as all four entrants into the semifinals are from the conference. Five of the eight classes could still have at least one representative in a state championship matchup.

Although obviously not the level of success attained by the CCL/ESCC, several other conferences still have two teams alive among the 32 teams. The Sangamo, Chicagoland Christian and West Suburban Silver all have two teams in the hunt for state finals berths.

Down to the last minute

• In Class 2A, Nashville was poised to pull off yet another theatrical win in the postseason, marching to the Athens 20-yard line and lining up for a game-winning field goal. But the Hornets missed the try and Athens escaped with a 28-27 win and a berth in the semifinals.

• The Class 4A matchup between IC Catholic and St. Laurence found the Vikings needing to traverse 70 yards in a little over a minute. They did so quickly, pushing the ball inside the 5-yard line with just under 30 seconds to play. Aaron Ball’s 2-yard touchdown run with 21 seconds gave the Vikings the lead and IC Catholic, last year’s Class 3A State Champion, couldn’t get the ball past midfield in its last-ditch drive.

• In another Class 4A clash, Murphysboro was literally down to its last play in its matchup with Harrisburg. But Gibson Fager threw a near perfect 31-yard touchdown pass to Josh Cano, who tip-toed his way into the corner of the end zone to give the Red Devils a stunning 25-20 win.

• The field’s only remaining five-loss team, Nazareth, looked on the verge of ending its unorthodox journey through the Class 5A draw, trailing by three with under a minute and facing a 13-and-fifteen. But Logan Malachuk popped a pass over the top of the Carmel defense from 27 yards out to secure a 21-17 victory and keep not only Nazareth’s quest to defend its state title from last year alive, but also still keeps it possible for the state’s first ever five-loss team to win a state championship.

• And then there was the Class 2A battle between Wilmington and Seneca. Already expected to be a nailbiter considering the down-to-the-wire nature of the regular-season matchup (a 27-21 Seneca win), the rematch was every bit as wild.

Wilmington pieced together an early lead courtesy of a safety and a 54-yard field goal from Reid Juster to send the Wildcats into the halftime break with a relatively odd score of 11-7.

Seneca took a 14-11 lead in the second half and appeared to be on the verge of putting the game away when Wilmington fumbled at its own 5-yard line. But Wilmington’s defense held, then held in another strenuous situation when Seneca pushed the ball down to the Wilmington 1-yard line but couldn’t get it in on fourth down.

Wilmington then had just two minutes to try to get into field goal range, which would seem difficult for most teams. Even more so for Wilmington, which doesn’t exactly have a lot of pages in their playbook with pass routes on them.

But Cade McCubbin completed four passes to give Juster an opportunity to send the game into overtime with a 37-yard field goal. McCubbin attempted 13 passes in the game, completing eight. There have been seasons where Wilmington hasn’t attempted or completed that many passes.

The Wildcat defense held yet again in the overtime with Seneca failing to score while Kyle Farrell plunged into the end zone on second down to send Wilmington to the semifinals.

Odds and ends

• Byron allowed a touchdown on the opening kickoff to Durand-Pecatonica but regrouped quickly.

The Tigers scored 42 unanswered points after the kick return and rolled to a 63-15 win. That scoring outburst gives Byron 735 points on the season which is already the third-highest point total in state history. Byron trails just the 2013 Sacred-Heart Griffin squad (744 points) and the state-record holding Peoria 2016 squad that finished the season with 805 points.

• The 32 remaining teams in the draw feature many teams that are completely accustomed to reaching the semifinal round such as Rochester, Mt. Carmel, Loyola and Lincoln-Way East.

Wheaton Academy and Hope Academy are both making the school’s first appearance in the semifinal round. Roxana also ended a long drought of postseason advancement reaching the semifinals for the first time since 1987.