St. Edward clinches playoff berth
St. Edward's first postseason bid in six seasons
ELGIN – St. Edward's postseason-clinching sixth win of the season bordered on the surreal on Friday night at a muddy Greg True Field.
After seeing a double-digit lead slip through its grasp in the final two and a half minutes, the Green Wave needed a blocked extra point try and 79-yard kickoff return touchdown to finally knock off Wheaton Academy 34-28, securing the sixth win that had been eluding it the last two weeks and giving the school its first playoff berth since 2003.
(Dave Shields/For The Courier-News)
With 33.1 seconds on the clock and the score knotted at 28, Jack Cholewa blocked Wheaton Academy's ensuing PAT try to keep St. Edward from falling behind. The Warriors kickoff then sailed out of bounds, giving the Green Wave (6-3, 3-2 Suburban Christian Conference Gold Division) the opportunity to take the ball from the 35.
Instead, the coaching staff declined the penalty and had Wheaton Academy (5-4, 3-2) re-kick.
"We saw a lot of clean jerseys on their kickoff team," coach Mike Rolando said. "Worst-case scenario, they onside kick it, we recover it on hopefully a short field or they kick it deep and something good can happen. I asked (special teams) coach (Mike) Childers which way we were going and he said, 'Left. There's a lot of clean jerseys over there.' "
Childers' instincts paid off.
David Hoebbel took the return 79 yards on a criss-crossing run that put the Green Wave ahead 34-28 with 15.7 seconds left.
"We worked so hard," said Hoebbel, who ran for 89 yards on 14 carries. "I had confidence in all of my teammates when we started that play. Coach called a return to the left. I knew as soon as I touched the ball that I was going to score a touchdown."
After a missed extra point try, St. Edward kicked off and three plays later, Nathan Gaige came away with an interception to seal the heart-stopping victory. The turnover was Wheaton Academy's only of the night. St. Edward turned the ball over four times.
"As soon as Nathan caught that ball I went straight into tears," senior lineman Shane Finnane said. "It's been four really, really long years. I've worked hard. Seven in the morning every day in the weight room, just trying to make me and my team better. It finally paid off."
The heavy drama began to unfold after Jordan Torres (19 carries, 134 yards) galloped into the end zone to put St. Edward up 28-16 with 2:32 left. A Wheaton Academy TD reception less than a minute later may have put a little doubt into the final result but a Torres fumble with 1:24 remaining definitely did.
The Warriors completed their miraculous comeback with 33.1 seconds remaining, when Academy's Brian Pell hit Anthony Ritchie for the score to tie the game at 28.
"Anything that could happen on a football field seemed like it was going to happen there," Rolando said. "I think I already forgot the whole first half already. The second half was so stressful. The seniors, the boys, all the players, stepped up and got it done when they had to.
"They never quit. We talked about playing with enthusiasm instead of emotion, because emotion, you can get down when something bad happens. Enthusiasm, you stay up, it's always positive."
With the extra point looming, the Green Wave faithful was in a hysterical panic. But with brutal field conditions crippling both sides' special teams units, the Green Wave kept the score all square at 28. Jack Cholewa became the second St. Edward player of the night to block an extra point.
"It was huge," Rolando said of the block. "(If it's good), then you're in desperation."
What led to the frenzied finish seems pedestrian by comparison. After a Jim Cholewa 35-yard field goal and a 50-yard Torres run, St. Edward led 9-0 with 3:47 left in the first.
A Sam Pozezinski fumble on a punt late in the quarter set up the first of Pell's four touchdown passes, with St. Edward's lead trimmed to 9-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Wheaton Academy capitalized off another St. Edward turnover late in the second, as a Ben Lehman pick led to a Warriors field goal that gave them a 10-9 halftime lead.
St. Edward went ahead 15-10 on its opening drive off the third on a 5-yard Hoebbel run but fell behind again 16-15 with 1:48 left in the quarter.
In what was the biggest play of the game up until that point, the Green Wave went back up with 6:17 left when a newly gloved Zach Von Ahnen made a quick catch up the middle, rambling 69 yards to put St. Edward up 21-16.
"He (went to the sideline and) put his gloves on," Rolando laughed. "I'm like, 'Nothing like giving it away.' We had been pounding the ball. First (Wheaton Academy) is bringing six and then they're bringing eight, then 10. As long as he wasn't getting jammed at the line, we were pretty sure he was going to be open."
Torres' TD run with 2:32 left put the Wave up 28-16, prompting what turned out to be some premature celebrations.
St. Edward was penalized seven times for 55 yards.
ST. EDWARD 34, WHEATON ACADEMY 28
Wheaton Academy 7 3 6 12 -- 28
St. Edward 9 0 6 19 -- 34
STED – FG Cholewa 35, 5:11
STED – Torres 50 run (kick failed), 3:47
WA – Libby 30 pass from Pell (Cote kick), 1:07
WA – FG Cote 25, 1:22
STED – Hoebbel 5 run (run failed), 9:14
WA – Johnson 4 pass from Pell (pass failed), 1:48
STED – Von Ahnen 69 pass from Lehman (run failed), 6:17
STED – Torres 15 run (Cholewa kick), 2:32
WA – Ritchie 32 pass from Pell (kick blocked), 1:42
WA – Ritchie 5 pass from Pell (kick blocked), :33
STED – Hoebbel 79 kickoff return (kick failed), :15
Team statistics WA STED
First downs 11 10
Comp.-att-int. 11-25-1 2-5-2
Passing yards 187 88
Rushing-att-yds. 29-70 39-248
Total yards 257 336
Fumbles-lost 0-0 4-2
Penalties-yards 5-43 7-55
Individual statistics
Rushing
WHEATON ACADEMY — Pell 17-34, Libby 10-38, Cote 2-(minus)2.
ST. EDWARD — Torres 19-134, Hoebbel 14-89, Lehman 5-23, Godfrey 1-2.
Passing
WHEATON ACADEMY — Pell 11-25-1 187.
ST. EDWARD — Lehman 2-5-2 88.
Receiving
WHEATON ACADEMY — Ritchie 7-135, Johnson 2-12, Libby 2-40.
ST. EDWARD – Von Ahnen 1-69, Hoebbel 1-19.
