Erie-Prophetstown can’t hold off Bishop McNamara in second-round loss in Class 2A playoffs

The Erie-Prophetstown football team was riding high late in the first half of Saturday afternoon’s Class 2A second-round playoff game in Kankakee.

But Bishop McNamara scored two touchdowns in the final 26 seconds of the first half to tie the score, then scored two fourth-quarter TDs to pull out a 42-27 win over the Panthers.

E-P (8-3) scored first on Kolby Franks’ 11-yard scoring strike to Braxton Froeliger on fourth-&-8 with 4:30 left in the first quarter. But the Fightin’ Irish tied it up on Jaydon Wright’s 10-yard TD run with 36 seconds left in the opening period, capping an eight-play, 67-yard drive to tie the score 7-7.

The Panthers got touchdown runs of 40 yards (on fourth-&-3) and 11 yards from Franks in the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead with 2:09 left before halftime.

That’s when Bishop Mac seized the momentum. Wright returned a fumble 73 yards for a score with 26 seconds left in the half, then the Fightin’ Irish got the ball back with 8 seconds left and scored on the next play, a 31-yard scoring strike from Brady Bertrand to Colton Provost with 3 seconds left to tie the score 21-21 at the break.

After Tony Phillips’ 24-yard TD run with 7:45 left in the third quarter gave Bishop Mac is first lead, Franks scored on a 14-yard run with 3:01 to go in the period, but the PAT kick missed wide right and the Panthers trailed 28-27 going into the fourth quarter.

But Phillips ran in from 68 yards on third-&-4 with 6:07 to play, then added a 20-yard TD run after an E-P turnovers on downs to ice the Fightin’ Irish victory with 2:57 left.

Franks finished with 158 yards and three touchdowns on 28 rushes, and was also 7-for-9 passing for 117 yards and a score. Connor Sibley ran the ball 14 times for 58 yards, and Jase Grunder rushed for 61 yards on six carries. Froeliger had two catches for 44 yards and a touchdown for E-P, which ran for 263 yards on 50 carries.

Phillips finished with 199 yards and three TDs on 17 rushes for Bishop Mac, which will visit top-seeded Wilmington (a 42-7 winner over Newman) in the quarterfinals next weekend. The Fightin’ Irish ran 22 times for 231 yards, an average of 10.5 yards per carry.