Glenwood spent the majority of Saturday afternoon’s Class 6A playoff game with Joliet Catholic in control.

But not too much control.

Glenwood led the entire way but Joliet Catholic still had hope of upending the top-seed in the south bracket until the very last minute as the Titans emerged with a 17-12 victory.

That win lifts Glenwood (10-0) into next weekend’s second round where it will host powerful East St. Louis (7-3). East St. Louis advanced with a 63-7 win over Plainfield East.

It was Joliet Catholic’s first time losing an opening round playoff game since 2006.

The two teams seemed content to trade punts in the early going before Glenwood started to do what it needed to do.

After forcing a Joliet Catholic turnover, two completed passes from Colten Knoedler was all it took for Glenwood to get into the end zone after a 42-yard touchdown reception from Dylan Huff.

The Titans imposed their will again in the second quarter using a mixture of runs from Grady Mueller and Knoedler to set up a second touchdown pass from Knoedler, this time to Henry Rose, who battered his way through two potential tacklers on his way to an 18-yard score.

Joliet Catholic (4-6), meanwhile, scuffled to get much of anything going offensively. The Hilltoppers ground game was stymied by inspired play from the Glenwood defensive line and field position problems forced Joliet Catholic to make a number of big plays just to get into scoring position.

“We have a lot of seniors on this team, but we have a ton of seniors on our defensive line and that’s one of the strengths of our team,” Glenwood coach David Hay said. “We had to lean on them and I thought they played very well.

“That’s the best 4-6 team I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure.”

Joliet Catholic fought valiantly to hang on.

A Derrick Pomatto interception early in the third quarter seemed to spark some life into the Hilltoppers with Lucas Simulick eventually connecting with Michael Brown for a 30-yard score that whittled the Glenwood lead down to 14-6.

And it looked like the Hilltoppers might keep that momentum train rolling after quickly forcing a three-and-out, but a drive that had some potential flickered out after an interception by Larry Wills.

The teams continued to trade punts until early in the fourth quarter when Tristan Schwindt drilled a 32-yard field goal to make it a two-score game as Glenwood led 17-6.

But the Hilltoppers pushed back once again, finally getting its running game to help the cause before Simulick tossed his second touchdown pass of the game, this one from 31 yards to Jayden Armstrong.

The Hilltoppers missed the 2-point conversion and trailed 17-12 with 5:48 to play.

With renewed hope, a previous problem materialized for Joliet Catholic, it just couldn’t get Glenwood off the field. Mueller and a precise passing game made sure that Joliet Catholic didn’t possess the football again and the Titans went into victory formation inside the Hilltopper 10-yard line in closing out the win.

“I told our guys, this game is a little microcosm of our season, off to a little bit of a slow start, and battled some adversity,” Joliet Catholic coach Jake Jaworski said. “We ran out of time. And I feel like if there was a little bit more on that clock, we would have had a shot there.

“We battled a ton of adversity early on in the year, and kind of finally had gotten our footing a little bit. I knew our guys would compete and that’s a really good football team over there. Our guys just kind of like went toe to toe, and they made a few more plays than we did.”