Karter Krutsinger had a good feeling that he knew what to expect – the Herscher defense was going to sell out against a potent Bishop McNamara ground game and make Krutsinger, the Fightin’ Irish’s senior quarterback, win Friday’s IHSA Class 3A first round playoff game through the air.

That’s exactly what he did.

Krutsinger threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth as part of McNamara’s run of five straight touchdowns to turn an early deficit into a runaway 38-14 victory at McNamara’s Rich Zinanni Athletic Complex, improving the Fightin’ Irish to 10-0 and sending them to the second round.

“I knew it was going to happen,” Krutsinger said. “My team had faith in me, my line is amazing and gets it done.”

It was the Tigers (6-4) who struck first in their first playoff game since 2018, when they began the opening drive at their own 27-yard line and found pay dirt eight plays later on Jaxon Sukeley’s 2-yard plunge to make it 7-0 just over four minutes into the game, the picture-perfect start for Herscher coach Mike Mosier.

“We wanted to win the toss, get the ball, go down and score,” Mosier said. “We did it picture perfect.”

The teams traded punts with both defenses in peak form for most of the first quarter, but faced with a fourth and 4 from the Herscher 28, Krutsinger faked a handoff to Julius May before finding a wide open Coen Demack in stride for the tying score with just over a minute left in the opening frame.

Tucker Inman recovered a Herscher fumble on the first play of the second quarter, giving the Irish a short field at the Herscher 24. They turned it over on downs at the 2-yard line, but had fully grabbed momentum.

Following a Herscher punt, the Irish set up shop at their own 44, and Jordan Callaway needed just two plays to give the Irish the lead. After busting loose on the right sideline for a 41-yard burst, Callaway made an eye-popping hurdle over a would-be Herscher tackler and galloped into the end zone for a 13-yard highlight reel score to give the Irish a 14-7 lead halfway through the second.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 17

Football: Bishop McNamara vs. Herscher, Class 3A first-round playoff Bishop McNamara's Jordan Callaway leaps over a Herscher defender en route to a touchdown during Bishop McNamara's 38-14 victory in the IHSA Class 3A first round playoff game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette)

“I saw the guy leave his feet off the ground because I saw him do it to Julius (May) before,” Callaway said. “I just tried it and it worked.”

The Irish had just enough time to score again before the half, with Krutsinger finding Richie Darr for a 31-yard score with 25 seconds left to give the hosts a 21-7 halftime lead. On the third play of the second half, Krutsinger connected with Demack again for a 53-yard touchdown on a third and 17 to make it 28-7.

The two quarterbacks traded rushing touchdowns, as Krutsinger cashed in on a 7-yard score with a minute left in the third and Tanner Jones snuck in from a yard out with 8:29 remaining. Bo Shalley added a 36-yard field goal.

Krutsinger finished 6-of-10 passing for 180 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 54 yards and a score on 11 rushes. Demack added a third catch and totaled 92 yards while Darr had two catches for 57 yards and Inman hauled in a 31-yarder.

“He’s not going to be the guy to wow you with anything speed-wise,” Irish head coach Greg Youngblood said of his senior signal-caller, “but he’s a tough kid, a great athlete, a great leader, and he hurts you when he needs to enough to win.”

May tallied a game-high 87 yards on the ground while Callaway turned eight carries into 73 yards and a touchdown. Slot back Malachi Lee, who saw constant attention from the Herscher defense, had one carry that lost six yards. Demack said that the attention the Irish backfield demands allowed he and Darr to find success Friday.

“When you’ve got three backs like that (Lee, May, Callaway), it creates everything, especially for Richie, who had a touchdown too,” Demack, who also had an interception, said. “It creates everything if the running backs are that good and they have to go one-on-one with us. We’re too big.”

Jones was 6 of 12 through the air for 69 yards and an interception. The Tigers’ lethal playmaking duo of Alek Draper and Mason Roberts were held in relative check Friday, as Draper finished with 15 carries for 49 yards and two catches for nine yards while Roberts had four carries for eight yards and three catches for 13 yards.

After the Tigers imposed their will in the trenches on the first drive, the Irish defensive line buckled down and allowed linebackers Ian Irps and Rhys Landsmann to fly to the ball and limit Herscher’s stars.

“That was our game plan, is to try and occupy people and let those two make plays,” Youngblood said. “We were getting high early, letting them get a push and get into us, but we buckled up. Our D-line came to play, they made piles and our linebackers made plays. That was the difference.”

The Irish won their first playoff game after a program-long three-year playoff skid while the Tigers also made their first appearance since 2018, snapping the area’s longest drought.

Mosier took over when the senior class was just starting out as freshmen, and although their end came sooner than they’d hoped, the Herscher head coach wants his seniors to hold their heads high as they exit the program.

“They didn’t even want to come off the field at any point at the end of the fourth quarter,” Mosier said. “They were still talking about adjustments and that’s why this group got us back to the playoffs. They just don’t stop. They ended the drought.

“Our goal since their freshmen year was to get the playoffs and they did everything perfect,” he added. “It stinks that we couldn’t get Mac in a later round after playing in Week 2, but still a heck of a game.”

The Irish will learn their opponent Saturday, either Chicagoland Christian Conference rival Hope Academy, whose lone loss came to the Irish in Week 8, or their former Metro Suburban Conference nemesis and proverbial state favorite, IC Catholic.