Joliet Catholic’s offense cannot be denied in Class 4A semifinal win over Richmond-Burton

RICHMOND – Pesky Richmond-Burton refused to go away quietly against powerful Joliet Catholic.

The Rockets basically played keep away from the Hilltoppers in the first half. Then, after Joliet Catholic had grabbed the lead, R-B scored with 8:09 remaining in the fourth quarter and trailed by only three points.

“We just needed to get the onside kick,” Hilltoppers coach Jake Jaworski said. “Offensively they were going to have a hard time stopping us, so I was not too concerned, because I was confident in our offense to move the ball.”

A few moments later, running back Jordan Anderson scored on a 21-yard run, and less than three minutes after that, Anderson added another touchdown and the Hilltoppers had a 35-18 victory in their Class 4A playoffs semifinal game on Saturday.

No. 1-seeded Joliet Catholic (13-0) will meet No. 3 Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (12-1) at 7 p.m. Friday for the Class 4A state championship. The Hilltoppers will be trying for their second state title in three seasons. They won the Class 5A championship in 2018.

No. 2 R-B (12-1) was the defending state champion from 2019 and saw its 32-game winning streak come to an end, but not without giving its favored opponent a great deal of resistance.

“We hung in there. We had our hands on the onside kick,” Rockets coach Mike Noll said. “We were right there. We played really good. We wanted to keep their offense off the field and for the most part we did that.”

R-B held the ball for 19:47 of the first half and led 10-7 at halftime. Rockets defensive back Landon Jacoby came up with a big play late in the half when he hit Joliet Catholic running back Vinny Iannantone at the R-B 2-yard line, forcing a fumble into the end zone that R-B’s Jack Martens recovered. That preserved the Rockets’ lead at halftime.

“The past three years, the only time a team’s been able to beat us they run the clock perfectly, clock management, don’t let us get the ball,” Hilltoppers quarterback Aidan Voss said. “They played a perfect game, probably couldn’t have played a better game against us. Once we got the ball, we got a rhythm and got our points.”

Even after the fumble, Jaworski felt confident at halftime.

“I think we had 12 offensive plays in the first half,” Jaworski said. “That’s the thing you worry about with a team like this. They did a heck of a job keeping us off [the field]. That drive before the half was kind of a rallying point because we got into our power game.”

Iannantone scored on a 64-yard run on the second play of the second half for a 14-10 lead and the Hilltoppers never trailed again.

“It was that much bigger because we didn’t have the lead [until then]. You worry about if we didn’t go down and score they could kill the clock again. We wanted to get the lead and force them to play from behind, get them out of their comfort zone. We were able to do that.”

Joliet Catholic drove 80 yards and Voss scored on a 3-yard run late in the third quarter to make it 21-10. But the Rockets answered back to score on running back Steven Siegel’s 16-yard run with 8:09 left in the fourth.

Fullback Brock Wood, who played most of the game with what he thought was a broken bone in his left thumb, bulled his way in for the two-point conversion.

“We were toe-to-toe with the No. 3 team in the entire state [according to MaxPreps.com],” Wood said. “If you ask anyone if we were going to be able to go into the fourth quarter and be in the game with JCA, they would probably laugh at us. We just needed a couple of big plays, a couple of things to come our way. It happens, it’s a tough way to end.”

Anderson, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior headed to Illinois, rushed 13 times for 123 yards. Iannantone ran 11 times for 119 yards. The Hilltoppers just could not be stopped.

“Yeah, I was a little nervous [at 21-18],” Joliet Catholic defensive end Jeremy Johnson said. “But I had big trust in our offense and we were doing pretty well on the defensive side.”

R-B trailed, 28-18, with 6:31 to go and faced a fourth-and-8 on its 28. Johnson shot through the line and sacked Rockets quarterback Joe Miller to stop the drive. Anderson’s 20-yard touchdown on the next play sealed it.

“We knew they weren’t going to give up. They were going to keep coming,” Voss said. “The offense, we had to do our job and get it in the end zone, and we did it. We got the ball in the second half and executed.”

Wood ran 24 times for 99 yards, while Siegel carried 14 times for 71 yards and both R-B touchdowns.

R-B was playing in a semifinal for the third consecutive year. The Rockets’ last loss came against IC Catholic, 28-9, in a 2018 Class 4A semifinal.

“I’m really proud of our kids,” Noll said. “This group really achieved at a high level, above and beyond what people thought they could do.”

Class 4A Semifinal

Joliet Catholic 35, Richmond-Burton 18

Joliet Catholic 0 7 14 14 – 35

Richmond-Burton 0 10 0 8 – 18

Second quarter

RB–Siegel 4 run (Lehn kick), 8:31.

JC–Voss 15 run (Durkin kick),, 7:25.

RB–FG 26 Lehn, 2:22.

Third quarter

JC–Iannantone 64 run (Durkin kick), 11:21.

JC–Voss 3 run (Durkin kick), 1:40.

Fourth quarter

RB–Siegel 16 run (Wood run), 8:09.

JC–Anderson 21 run (Durkin kick), 6:36.

JC–Anderson 20 run (Durkin kick), 2:52.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Joliet Catholic: Anderson 13-123, Iannantone 11-119, Voss 5-40. Totals: 29-300. Richmond-Burton: Wood 24-99, Siegel 14-71, Jacoby 8-54, Miller 3-7, Nellessen 4-6, Slove 1-3, Team 1-minus 1, Falasca 1-minus 3. Totals: 56-236.

PASSING–Joliet Catholic: Voss 2-4-0-61. Richmond-Burton: Miller 5-7-2-88.

RECEIVING–Joliet Catholic: Feldman 1-51, Bonsu 1-10. Richmond-Burton: Siegel 2-8, Jacoby 1-53, Nelson 1-15, Kalinowski 1-12.

TOTAL TEAM YARDS–Joliet Catholic 361, Richmond-Burton 324.