They’re not quite yet where they want to be, but after Friday’s dominant performance against Chicago Christian, the Bishop McNamara football team is well on its way to getting there.

In front of a lively homecoming crowd at the Rich Zinanni Athletic Complex, the Fightin’ Irish scored three touchdowns on their first five plays and never looked back, breaking the 60-point mark by the half and holding the defending IHSA Class 2A State champions to -20 yards of offense in a 75-0 throttling.

The Fightin’ Irish improved to 4-0 and 2-0 in the Chicagoland Christian Conference, matching their win total from each of the last two seasons and bringing them to within a victory of snapping a program-long three-year playoff drought. The Knights fell to 1-3, 0-2.

“One more win’s going to mean the world, man,” senior quarterback Karter Krutsinger, who completed all three of his passes for 108 and two touchdowns, said. “I’m almost in tears tonight. It’s just a culture we haven’t had in the past couple of years. We finally got it together and I think we’re going to do great things.”

Krutsinger’s first touchdown pass was a 40-yard strike to a wide open Coen Demack on the second play of the night. After three tackles for loss quickly forced a Knights punt, the Irish again scored on their second play of the drive, a 27-yard Julius May rushing score.

May totaled three first-quarter touchdowns to account for half of McNamara’s 42-point opening frame, giving him 11 rushing touchdowns through four games. Playing for a new head coach in Greg Youngblood, May credited Youngblood for the revived culture that’s trickled out of the team’s new football facilities that debuted last month, a physical embodiment of a new era of Fightin’ Irish football.

“It’s just been [from] a culture standpoint,” May said. “[Youngblood] has brought us closer together, made us do more stuff as a team. It just helps us on the field, because when things go bad we have each others’ backs. Grinding all summer long, all offseason long, it’s been amazing.”

Youngblood, the defensive coordinator for last year’s 4-5 team, was quick to deflect the credit right back to May and his teammates.

“It’s a selfless mentality,” Youngblood said. “They want to do what they need to do to win because they’ve been through the hard times. That’s what it takes, and we’re talented, so when guys buy into what you’re doing, when they want the team to succeed, you can do something special. We’re on our way and not there yet, but it’s a great start.

“I give them all the credit,” he continued. “They’re a great group of guys and they’ve matured. They’re a different group of guys than they were a few years ago.”

Krutsinger’s other touchdown pass was a 59-yarder to Malachi Lee, who caught, ran and returned a punt for a touchdown for his own hat trick, all in a first half in which the Irish built a 62-0 lead. Jordan Callaway added a first-half score of his own while Zane Gulley and Rhys Landsman each found paydirt during a running clock second half.

The Irish ran for 391 yards Friday, led by 89 from Callaway, 87 from Gulley and 57 from May, the latter of whom had just five carries. Meanwhile, the defense saw 11 different players record a sack and/or tackle for a loss, forced as many turnovers as they allowed first downs (four) and held the Knights to negative-20 yards on the night.

While the Irish, who entered the week ranked ninth in Class 3A in the latest AP Polls, have flown relatively under the radar so far this season, defeating a defending state champion by such a lopsided margin has certainly put a program with five state championships in its prestigious history back on the map.

“Under the radar is definitely something we like to be, but we definitely made a statement tonight against the state champs,” senior linebacker/tight end Tucker Inman, who had an interception and two tackles for loss, said. “It means a lot to us.”

The Irish will hit the road next week for a 7 p.m. showdown with Aurora Christian next Friday.