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Numerous penalties and a turnover put Mt. Carmel in danger of losing to Batavia in the opening round of the Class 7A playoffs.
However, a huge penalty on the Bulldogs and a miscue on special teams turned the fortunes in the Caravan’s favor.
Mt. Carmel scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to rally for a 21-16 victory in a battle of defending state champions at Batavia on Nov. 1.
“We had a turnover in the first half and some foolish penalties that stopped some drives; but the [roughing the kicker] penalty was as good as a turnover for us, and we were lucky to take it down and score some points. There’s no doubt that was a turning point,” said Mt. Carmel Coach Frank Lenti. “We felt like it would be tough for them to stop our offense because they don’t see our offense. They had to prepare in three days for what we do for three months. The big thing we wanted to do was eat up the clock. The idea was to first-down them to death so we could keep their explosive offense off the field.”
The Caravan (6-4) faced a fourth-and-26 late in the third quarter, but the roughing-the-punter flag kept the drive alive. Mt. Carmel took advantage, driving 44 yards on the next five plays to regain a 13-10 lead with 11:38 left in the game.
Junior running back A.J. Lewis (21 carries, 95 yards, two touchdowns) found the end zone from three yards out to complete the drive. Zac Mirabelli made the extra point to make it 14-10.
“We must like these close games,” said Lewis with a smile. “Adversity has been our best friend this season. The coaches tell us we are going to face it every week. [Quarterback Anthony Thompson] got in the huddle during that scoring drive, and he said that we were seeing adversity and what were we going to do about it? We could either lie down and let it happen and lose the game 10-7, or we can go out and kick butt and score like we did.”
After Mt. Carmel forced a punt, the Caravan embarked on a trademark long drive that chewed up much of the remaining 10 minutes off the clock. Mt. Carmel threw only one time on a 16-play drive that ended on a long missed field-goal attempt with 3:42 left.
Jake Cirame, Andrejas Duerig, Matthew McKay, Matthew Reyes and Jack White opened holes to help the Caravan rush for four first downs, including a nine-yard scamper by Lewis on fourth and three midway through the possession.
The Caravan special-teams squad then took its turn making a big play when junior Foster Williams blocked a punt inside the Bulldogs 10.
Two plays later, Lewis found the end zone again from three yards out to extend the lead to two scores with 2:32 remaining.
Batavia quickly marched down the field to trim the deficit to 21-16 with 1:12 remaining, but for the second week in a row, the Caravan recovered an onside kick to seal the win. Kyle Czubak did the on-side honors this week.
Mt. Carmel’s defense, led by Andrew Guerra, Troy Weisennhofer, DeAndre Greer, Terrell Greer and Kevin Thurmon, continued to make big strides after struggling for much of the season. The defense kept Batavia off the board when the Bulldogs started a drive at the Mt. Carmel 11-yard line following a blocked punt late in the second quarter.
“Our defense was fighting and kept coming,” said Guerra, who had a sack. “We had a lot of personnel changes coming into the year. Everyone is getting those positions down, and we are coming together. We’ve been working hard and hitting hard.”
Mt. Carmel will make the long journey south for a second-round contest at Belleville West on Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.