Knights close out perfect campaign with another blowout victory.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
Perfection!
Domination!
Those are the two words that sum up the IC Catholic Prep football team’s 2016 season.
The Knights put the bow on a perfect 14-0 season with a 43-0 victory over Carlinville in the Class 3A state football title game held at Memorial Stadium on the grounds of the University of Illinois in Champaign.
It was IC Catholic Prep’s third state title. The Knights also won state crowns in 2002 and 2008. Head coach Bill Krefft has now won state titles as a player and coach at IC Catholic Prep. He was a lineman and co-captain on the 2002 state-championship team. Krefft also was an assistant coach on the 2008 title team.
In the win against Carlinville, the Knights were their usual dominating selves, out-gaining their opponent 475 yards to 190 yards despite Carlinville running seven more offensive plays.
IC Catholic Prep ran for 333 yards on the ground on only 34 carries and also had 142 passing yards. Carlinville also held the ball longer than IC Catholic Prep (25:35-22:25) yet scored no points.
Jordan Rowell led the Knights with a Class 3A state-championship game record 270 rushing yards on 26 carries (10.4 yards per carry). He scored three more rushing touchdowns and added a fourth on a pass reception to share a Class 3A state record for most touchdowns in the championship contest (4).
Rowell finished the season with 2,295 rushing yards and 37 rushing touchdowns. He finished the year with 42 total touchdowns. The 42 touchdowns in a season places Rowell in the Top 10 in state history all-time.
Luke Ricobene completed 9 of 17 passes for 142 yards and three touchdowns.
Lazerick Eatman caught three passes for 53 yards and a touchdown. Matt Sutton caught two passes for 41 yards and a touchdown while Rowell had a fourth touchdown via a reception. He finished with two catches for 28 yards and the one score. Khalil Saunders had two catches for 20 yards.
Sutton started the scoring with a 37-yard touchdown reception from Ricobene with 11:09 to play in the first quarter. After IC Catholic Prep recovered the ensuing kickoff. Eatman, on the very next play, caught a 28-yard TD from Ricobene with 11:00 to play in the first quarter to give the Knights a 15-0 lead.
Rowell added touchdown runs of 20 and 14 yards in the first quarter and the Knights, just like that, led 29-0 after 12 minutes of action.
Rowell rounded out the scoring with a 22-yard touchdown reception from Ricobene in the third quarter and a 78-yard touchdown run with 54 seconds remaining in the third.
Sam Buffo kicked five extra points and Rowell ran in a two-point conversion on the Knights’ first touchdown of the day.
No IC Catholic Prep scoring drive took more than five minutes. Five of the Knights’ six scoring drives took under two minutes each. With the exception of an 11-play, 66-yard drive that took 4:18, the Knights other scoring possessions lasted four plays, one play, six plays, five plays and four plays.
On the defensive end, Kemon Reese had 16 tackles, including 11 solos. Chris Johnson had 14 tackles. Khali Saunders, Robert Vitek, Matt Jordan and Jimmy Kenneally each had a tackle for loss. Those four tackles for loss totaled 16 yards. Khalil Saunders had a fumble recovery and an interception.
Sutton also had an interception for 30 yards. Kenneally had a quarterback sack for eight yards of loss.
IC Catholic Prep finished the season scoring 721 points and allowing opponents to score only 94. It was IC Catholic Prep’s eighth shutout of the season and 11th game of the year where it held an opponent to single digits in scoring.
Head coach Bill Krefft is now 42-15 in five seasons at the helm and is 25-2 over the last two seasons. Krefft played for the late Bob Cozzi on the 2002 state team and was an assistant on former head coach Bill Schmidt’s 2008 state title team. Schmidt was an assistant on the 2002 team.
This also marked the first undefeated season in program history. The 2002 team went 13-1, while the 2008 team made the playoffs as a 5-4 team and finished 10-4 after going on a 5-0 run in the postseason.
