Sacred Heart-Griffin finishes off Thornton Fractional North with defense
CALUMET CITY — Sacred Heart-Griffin had two opponents in the first half of its Class 5A playoff game Saturday: the Cyclones’ host, Thornton Fractional North, and themselves.
By the final horn at a chilly TF North home field, however, the Cyclones walked tall back to their revving bus. Overcoming the first 24 minutes in which they were in the red zone four times but came away with only 10 points, the Cyclones looked more like their reigning state champion selves in the second half en route to a 23-0 Class 5A playoff victory.
Next up for the No. 9 Cyclones (7-3) is unbeaten and top-seeded Morris (10-0) on Saturday at Ken Leonard Field. If Morris thinks this coming game will be just another notch in their own potential championship belt, Cyclones senior Ethan Hagele had some fighting words after this win.
“I know we’ve got four games left and I know we’ve got it in us. We’re going to keep fighting,” said Hagele, who was SHG’s best all-around player in the win over the big — but offensively-challenged — Meteors (7-3). “It’ll be a good game for us and it’ll teach us a lot. Today, we all just had to persevere and we had to finish. We came out in the second half and we just finished.”
Despite going into halftime with a 10-0 lead on a short touchdown run by senior Christian Pollard and a 28-yard field goal with 17.8 seconds left from junior Thomas Davis, SHG was frustrated. The Cyclones had a first-and-goal from the TF North 1-yard line, but four plays later the ball went back to the Meteors after a stout goal-line stand and a slip-and-fall by SHG quarterback Levi Hanauer at the 10.
The Cyclones had a second-and-goal from the TF North 5 in the second quarter, but penalties and another Hanauer slip — then a blocked field-goal attempt — again gave the ball to the Meteors. Another failed red-zone attempt from inside the 5 was salvaged, at least, by the Davis field goal. With the way the SHG defense was playing, 10-0 sure felt a lot bigger lead than 7-0.
“Shootin’ ourselves in the foot,” is how Cyclones coach John Allison described the first half. “We had some miscues once we were down inside the 5. But we changed some things at halftime.”
More: Sophomore QB lights up Bloomington in Chatham Glenwood's win in first round of 6A playoffs
The Cyclones’ offensive line did a better job at picking up TF North’s frequent blitz attack in the second half, and Hanauer and Hagele started finding some seams down the field. Hanauer connected with senior receiver Ethan Keller for a big 24-yard TD pass to open the second half to make it 17-0, and then the SHG defensive line started to make life miserable for small, but strong-armed, TF North senior QB Dominic Gradford.
“There was some stuff that kind of got in the way, some calls here and there that didn’t go our way, but we just stayed poised and came out the next half and did a good job,” Hanauer said.
The Meteors rarely got into Cyclones territory the whole game, and by the time Hagele ran the ball into the end zone from 2 yards out with 34 seconds left in the third, the game was over.
Hagele, who suffered a broken hand in Week 1, was given the ball most of the time from the first quarter on. Now that he’s finally 100% healthy, it could be just what the Cyclones needed if they are to entertain realistic hopes for a second straight state title.
“Today is what we saw of him all summer,” Allison said. “Unfortunately, that injury set him back, and he made the choice to keep it (in a cast) a little longer than having surgery and coming back maybe a little sooner, because he wanted to be here, fully healthy in the playoffs. That shows the kind of leadership he has.”
More: Open and shut case: Rochester takes care of Lincoln in first-round rout
About facing unbeaten Morris, Allison said, “Well, for sure we have to take advantage of our chances. We can’t have the ball inside the 5 that many times and only get one touchdown. You can’t do that against a team like Morris. They’re going to be really good, but I’m glad it’s at our place.”
SHG is 1-1 against Morris in the playoffs. Morris beat the Cyclones 30-20 in the 2012 Class 5A semifinals. SHG got payback in 2019 with a first-round 43-35 Class 5A victory.
Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA football: SHG pitches shutout over Thornton Fractional North
