Fenwick's Upset Bid Sacked By St. Rita

Fenwick coach Joe DiCanio did not hesitate when his team scored a touchdown with less than a minute remaining to pull within a point of St. Rita.

He ordered the offense to stay on the field to go for the win.

The attempt to pull off a major upset fell just short when St. Rita's Joe Filomeno sacked Friars quarterback Pat Hart on the two-point conversion attempt, enabling the Mustangs to escape with a 14-13 victory in a Chicago Catholic League Blue Division battle Saturday afternoon at Morton West in Berwyn.

"There was no question about it," DiCanio said of his call. "We're going to go for two to win the game. I'm not going to second guess the decision. I thought it was the right one. I'll do it again."

"That didn't surprise me at all," St. Rita coach Todd Kuska said. "We figured all along if they scored there they were going to go for two. They had us on the ropes a little bit there. We were reeling a little bit so they were definitely going to go for two."

St. Rita (4-0, 2-0), the consensus No. 2-ranked team in the Chicago area, took a 14-0 lead into the fourth quarter before Fenwick (1-3, 0-2) mounted a comeback.

The Friars put together a 10-play, 47-yard drive for their first score. Hart connected with Quinn Murphy for a 6-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone with 5:14 remaining in the game. Zach Laszkiewicz's kick brought the home team within 14-7.

On its next possession, Fenwick received the ball on its 31-yard line with 1:35 left. After a couple pass interference penalties helped the Friars down the field, Hart hooked up with Murphy for a 10-yard touchdown strike over the middle just inside the goal line on a fourth-down play with 28.7 seconds to go.   

On the two-point conversion attempt, Hart rolled right but Filomeno converged on him for the sack.

"Their quarterback played a (heck of a) game," Kuska said. "He was getting hit back there a lot. We figured they'd roll him out and we were good enough to get some pressure on him."

Hart finished 12-for-23 passing for 147 yard with two touchdowns and one interception.  He also gained 42 rushing yards on 17 attempts.

St. Rita was led by Scott Thomas, who completed eight of 16 passes for 101 yards with a touchdown and interception, and Jahwon Akui, who ran for 99 yards on 28 carries.

"We had some mistakes and some mental breakdowns today, but they played well," said Kuska, complimenting the Friars. "That's a hard-fought football game. They did things that they had to do and we did the things that we had to do, and we were able to get by."

Fenwick showed it could play with St. Rita in the first quarter where the Friars didn't allow the Mustangs a first down. However, the home team failed to take advantage of a couple scoring chances. An attempt at a 27-yard field goal missed at the end of the game's opening drive. Then late in the first quarter the Friars lost a fumble at the St. Rita 25.

Early in the second quarter, Fenwick's Joe Kelly kept the game scoreless by intercepting a St. Rita pass in the end zone on a third-and-goal play at the 4.

St. Rita took a 7-0 lead later in the second quarter. A 14-play, 56-yard dive culminated with a 1-yard touchdown leap by Akui with 1:33 left in the half.

The Mustangs received the ball to start the second half and marched 57 yards into the end zone. Thomas threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Golladay, and Chris Donahue's kick made it 14-0 at 6:04 of the third quarter.   

But the Friars gave St. Rita a scare down the stretch, and almost did more than that.

"There are no moral victories, but I'll tell you what," DiCanio told his players in the postgame huddle. "I couldn't be prouder of a bunch of guys."