In a game marred by constant penalties, the last remaining Chicago Public League team, the Morgan Park Mustangs, fell to the St. Francis Spartans 37-14 in IHSA 5A quarterfinals Saturday.
Turnovers and penalties throttled the Mustangs in the first half. The Mustangs had a sixty-two touchdown called back. On the next play, Morgan Park QB Marcus Thaxton throw a side arm pass late down the middle of the field. A big no-no. St. Francis easily picked it off. The Spartans worked the ball down to the Morgan Park nine yard-line and scored on a quick slant to the slot receiver, senior wide receiver Ian Willis. Even so, it was 13-8 St. Francis until late in the second quarter.
Morgan Park (10-1, 7-0) came into the game as the 4 seed with a 10-1 overall record. Its only loss this year was to second ranked Mount Carmel 22-12 in week two.
The Mustangs were 7-0 in the Chicago Public Leagues’ new super-conference, the new Red Division. Before the season, CPS Sports Administration combined the top teams in the Red Division into one sixteen team super-conference. Seven other teams from the conference made the IHSA playoffs the season, Whitney Young, Kenwood, Amundsen, Lane, Simeon, Phillips and Taft. Morgan Park was the last surviving team. It was Morgan Park’s twenty-fifth appearance in the IHSA football playoffs since 1985.
St. Francis in Wheaton came into the game on a hot streak. After getting pummeled 47-0 by Loyola in early October, the Spartans have put together a four-game win streak at the right time. The Spartans come out of the Orange Division of the CCL/ESCC joint Catholic Conference in football this year. The Orange also has two other surviving playoff teams, IC Catholic Prep and Nazareth Academy.
St. Francis is no stranger to playoff football having qualified sixteen time since 1997, winning a state championship in 2005 and advancing to the 4A semifinal game last year.
The game turned late in the first half with St. Francis quarterback Alessio Milivojevic’s eleven-yard touchdown run.
“I like getting hit once or twice on a run. Then I get locked in, clicked in,” said St. Francis senior quarterback and Ball State recruit Alessio Milivojevic. It was the Milivojevic’s 11-yard touchdown run sparked his game on Saturday. Sun-Times Reporter Michael O’Brien captured a video and included it in his Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/michaelsobrien/status/1723424427335925919
After the Milivojevic’s touchdown to make the game 19-8, Morgan Park’s quarterback gave up another interception with under a minute to go. The Spartans worked their way down the short field for a twenty-two yard field goal making the half time score 22-8.
In the second half, Morgan Park scored on a quick bubble screen out to senior wide receiver and Montana recruit Chris Dorr who took it up the sideline 40 yards for the score.
But the second half was just about St. Francis and Milivojevic being able to drive the ball with the run and the pass. Morgan Park gave up two more touchdowns and fell 37-14.
St. Francis advances to play conference rival Nazareth next Saturday in the 5A semi-final. Curiously, the two other surviving 5A teams, Joliet Catholic and Providence Catholic, are also from the CCL/ESCC conference.
