DePaul Prep Advances to State Title Game with 21-14 Win Over Coal City

[Preview of my Inside—Booster Article]

By Jack Lydon

DePaul Prep is in the state championship game. Not basketball. Football.

That’s right. The DePaul Prep Rams football team went to Coal City, Illinois, and defeated the traditionally good Coalers football team 21-14 Saturday afternoon. The Rams will face Mt. Zion on Friday in the IHSA State Championship at Illinois State University’s Hancock Field.

The Rams finished second in the CCL/ESCC Purple Division this year with a 6-3 record. They only elevated out of the CCL/ESCC’s lowest division last year with a record 4-6. DePaul Prep has had exactly one playoff appearance in ten years of existence. They were pasted 40-0 in 2015 by Elmwood-Brumfield.

Not anymore. No hiding it. No denying it. No avoiding it. Believe it. These Rams are legit.

They have very good players and excellent coaches. The team can run and pass. They can run up the middle. They can run wide. They can pass deep. They can pass short. They come back when they are behind. They can play defense. They stop the run. They stop the pass. They sack the quarterback. They bend but not break. They hold a lead.

The Rams had a few miscues in the first half that keep the game within reach for the Coalers. Rams highly regarded senior quarterback, Fernando “Juju” Rodriguez, scrambled out of trouble for a nice gain only to turn the ball over while going down. A little while later, after an amazing run through the Coal City defense, Rams’ senior running back Nick Martinez fumbled the ball just outside the endzone only to have it recovered by Coal City for a touchback.

The Rams defense handled the Coalers in the first half. The Coalers never threatened.

There was plenty of fight left in the Coalers. They took the second half kickoff and drove down the field, six and seven yards at a time, to tie the game 7-7.

The Rams answered in three plays. A 39-yard pass to touchdown pass from Rodriguez to senior wide receiver Matthew Osterman gave the Rams the lead 14-7.

One never felt like the Rams would lose the game. It just took too much for Coal City to score. The Coalers put up another touchdown. The Rams answered again.

“Juju is the best quarterback in the state,” said a fan in the celebration after the game.

“I am just focused on us winning. Just getting to this moment and winning next week,” said Rodriguez. Juju’s probably not the best quarterback in the state. He’s probably not the best quarterback in the Catholic League. Just ask Mount Carmel’s Jack Elliott and Loyola’s Ryan Fitzgerald.

But maybe Juju is. If taking an underdog, overachieving 6-3 team to the state championship game counts a lot more than leading a perennial powerhouse program, he just might be the best quarterback in Illinois. You’ll get no argument from me on that point. 

It wasn’t just Juju who won the game. One cannot overstate the work of the defense, especially the stellar play of senior defensive lineman Michael Casper and linebacker Jett Reese. When Coal City was forced to throw in the closing minutes, the Rams’ defensive backfield, led by senior cornerback Shae Griffith, turned them away. 

The 4A state championship game will be Friday evening, the day after Thanksgiving, at 7:00 p.m., at Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium. The Rams will face the Mt. Zion Braves. The Braves (10-3) from the Apollo Conference defeated University High from Normal in Saturday’s other 4A semi-final.

“It hasn’t sunk in. I talked to the boys. I talked to the coaches. I’ve got people coming up to me. I am trying to embrace the moment but I am starting to think about getting back to work,” Rams head coach Mike Passarella said.

DePaul Prep is unique. It is a new school but has, or shares, an old tradition. The tradition of Gordon Tech. One of Gordon Tech’s legacies, maybe its most well-known, is a state championship in 1980. Gordon was a big school then. 2000 boys in class 6A, the largest class. DePaul Prep’s head football coach before Passarella was Bill Jeske, a member of that 1980 state champion Gordon Tech team.

“It was 44 years ago yesterday,” Bill Jeske said after the game. “Even though the name [of the school] has changed, the Rams’ traditions continue. I spent last night with my friends. I said this team is just like us. They are a team of destiny.”

DePaul Prep Handles St. Patrick 41-0

[Preview of this week’s Inside Booster article]

By Jack Lydon

The DePaul Prep Rams took apart the St. Patrick Shamrocks 41-0 at DePaul Prep on Friday evening. The Rams improved their 4-0, 2-0 in the CCL/ESCC Purple division. This game against the Shamrocks, 2-2, 1-1, also in the Purple, took on the added significance because it was a division game.

It was a busy evening on the west end of Roscoe Village. DePaul Prep hosted St. Patrick, the only other Catholic high school on the Northside. Lane hosted Whitney Young at Lane Stadium at the same time just a few hundred yards north of DePaul’s field. Parking was difficult to come by.

Before the game, the DePaul Prep fans, coaches and staff I talked to were tightlipped about what to expect.

“They’re good. And big,” a couple people told me.

Another observer told me, “DePaul 20-13.”

“They can run the football, but they haven’t played anyone that can pass the ball like we can,” one coach told me.

It didn’t take long for the Rams show exactly how well they can pass the ball. And score. Less than two minutes into the game, Rams senior quarterback Juju Rodriguez hit senior wideout Justin Sterner on a twenty-five-yard touchdown.

Not long thereafter, Rams’ senior running back Nick Martinez added another touchdown with a 37-yard for a touchdown. 14-0.

Rams’ senior wide receiver Braden Peevy scored a four-yard touchdown with 6:55 left in the second quarter to make the score 21-0. The Rams were rolling.

Then with nine seconds left in the half, Rodriguez connected with junior wide receiver Matthew Osterman on a 23-yard post route at the back of the north endzone for a fourth touchdown and a 27-0 half time lead.

To some extent, that was expected. The Rams and Juju, a three-year starter, can pass the ball and score. What was not expected was the way the Rams defense controlled the Shamrocks. St. Patrick’s strung together a couple first downs in the first quarter but never threated to score in the first half. The Rams defense held on every possession and forced punts. The Shamrocks offensive line is huge. The Rams defensive line stopped the run. The closest the Shamrocks go to scoring as a 52-yard field goal attempt late in the game that was on target but a came up few yards short.

It felt like the Rams were just taking-care-of-business. St. Patrick had a winning record. They are big and skilled. Yet the Rams handled them on offense and defense.

I remember interviewing Rams head coach Mike Passarella several years ago. He said something to me after a tough loss that stuck with me. “We haven’t learned how to win yet.”

The Rams have learned how to win.

“I think it started last year. It started with us losing a game against Providence [Catholic in New Lenox] by a couple points. Then we beat Fenwick in double overtime. We learned how to compete, how to stay in games and how to finish games. When I started here, it was a rough go in the beginning. Then every year it was a steady climb. We grew up last year,” Passarella said.

When one learn how to win, I guess it just feels like taking care-of-business. Check off another game on the schedule.

But the goal of the season is to get into to the playoffs. The Catholic school super football conference, a combination of the Chicago Catholic League and the East Suburban Catholic League, doesn’t make it easy to get to the playoffs. To be assured a playoff spot, the IHSA requires a 6-3 record. Getting six wins in the CCL/ESCC is tough for every team. You just don’t play teams at your level. You play teams from the higher divisions of the conference.

The Rams face Loyola next week from the Blue Division. Loyola has lost one game in the last three seasons. The Rams will play St. Francis (Wheaton) from the Green Division. The Rams will play Carmel Catholic from the White Division. Very good teams with winning programs. And then there are St. Viator and Benet Academy, historically successful programs and new rivals in the Purple Division. To make the playoffs, the Rams have to find two wins in those five games against teams from the upper levels of the Catholic League.

Asked what he is going to change to get ready for Loyola, Passarla said, “Honestly, nothing. Our practice is going to be the same during the week. The kids know that when we are on the road, it’s a business trip. This is the first group that has the ability to flip the switch and be engaged. They want it.”

They turned a corner. They learned how to win.

“Yup, this group is hungry. This senior class wants to be the first class to bring us back to the playoffs for the first time in a decade,” Passarella concluded.