Without the Prep Bowl, St. Ignatius sophomore quarterback Reid Hites wouldn’t have played a down of football this season.

After injuring his arm during a Week 0 scrimmage, Hites missed the entire regular season and St. Ignatius fell short of the IHSA playoffs, finishing 2-7. But Hites and the Wolfpack opted into the Prep Bowl, an annual postseason tournament culminating with a championship game between one CCL team and one CPS team.

That game took place at Hanson Stadium in Chicago on Friday, when Hites totaled 83 yards and senior running back Robbie Connor rumbled for three touchdowns as St. Ignatius defeated Morgan Park 40-12 to win its second straight Prep Bowl. Connor carried the ball 22 times for 96 yards in his final high school game.

“Our quarterback got his only opportunities to play this year,” St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller said. “He had to have surgery and pretty much hung it up for the year. When we got the double bye week, he was cleared by his physician to play. When we talk about giving guys experience... without the Prep Bowl, he would’ve had none.”

The Prep Bowl victory capped off a string of three straight post-regular season wins for the Wolfpack (5-7), who cruised over Leo 49-6 in their first Prep Bowl game before outlasting Niles Notre Dame 20-19 on Nov. 22 to advance to the championship game. Connor, who ran for 143 yards on 28 carries against the Dons, is one of 25 graduating seniors who capitalized on the extra games.

“I’ll always be a supporter of the Prep Bowl,” Miller said. “It’s a great tradition and I want to see it live on... We asked our seniors and they were all in on it and they wanted to keep playing. Football is a sport that you can’t play forever. I enjoy doing the Prep Bowl and it was nice to see some of our guys have success.”

Klass ran for 42 yards on six carries and Ryan Russell, who churned for 21 yards on four carries, reeled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Hites to help the Wolfpack offense. Hites, who threw for 58 yards while adding 25 rushing yards on five carries, is one of several young players St. Ignatius will lean on next season.

“I don’t think the ball touched the ground in any of our three games,” Miller said. “We didn’t put the ball on the ground and we kept the chains moving. We kept most of everything in a positive direction and we took care of the football. When we do each of those things, we give ourselves a chance to win. In the games we lost this year, we didn’t, but in the games that were tight, we did.”

Liam Brennan recorded a team-high nine tackles for the Wolfpack, who finished with eight tackles for loss in the victory against the Mustangs on Friday. Evan Steigleder, Connor Wanzung and Ian Burris each had seven tackles to aid the St. Ignatius defense, which broke up eight passes and intercepted two in the game.

“We had to make them put together 10, 12 or 14-play drives to score,” Miller said. “Morgan Park did that on their first two drives... Eventually, we started getting stops on money downs and that got us off the field. When you make teams earn it, something will eventually go wrong, whether it’s a bad snap or someone jumping offsides... We couldn’t let them have that one big play.”

The Wolfpack went 3-0 in the Prep Bowl tournament last season, knocking off Carmel, Niles Notre Dame and Whitney Young to end the 2024 campaign with a 6-6 record. Armed with consecutive Prep Bowl titles, St. Ignatius will seek to return to the playoffs. The Wolfpack have reached the playoffs six times since 2017.

St. Ignatius has played in close games against quality opponents, losing to 7A state finalist Brother Rice by just eight points after narrow losses against Mount Carmel and Loyola, two 2024 state champions, last year. Delivering in key moments, an area that St. Ignatius has struggled in recently, will be paramount next year.

“The margin for error is really small for us,” Miller said. “This year, more games got away from us than in the previous year... We had all of these tight games with teams winning state championships and it comes down to one or two plays that need to go your way. In those key moments and opportunities, we have to make the play.”