The prep football season is over for Iowa's 2024 and 2025 commits. Overall, it was a season with notable highs and lows. Some players saw their seasons ended by injury or by defeats in the playoffs that came sooner than expected. Four commits made their state championship games, and two finished the year as state champions. Here are the prep performances from the final two weeks of the season.
State Semifinal: Central Catholic 35, Chardon 7
Central Catholic was rarely tested this season. Coming into the state semifinal game last week, the Fighting Irish had just one win of fewer than 21 points. Ultimately, the semifinal wasn't much of a challenge, either.
Central Catholic returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Chardon did respond with a touchdown to tie the game, but from there Central Catholic dominated. It led 28-7 at halftime and cruised to a 35-7 victory.
Watson found the end zone twice in the game. The first came on an 18 yard reception. Watson beat his defenders on a post route and caught the ball at the 1-yard line. He then dodged another defender, before jogging into the end zone. The touchdown gave CC a 14-7 lead.
On the second touchdown, Watson lined up as the Wildcat quarterback on 4th-and-9. He faked a handoff, then scrambled left looking to pass. Ultimately, he couldn't find a receiver and pulled the ball down to run. He beat every defender to the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown run that put CC up 28-7.
Watson was also interviewed after the game:
State Championship: Central Catholic 27, Bishop Watterson 7
Like the semifinal game, Central Catholic faced a bit of adversity early in the state title game Bishop Watterson scored a touchdown six minutes into the game to go up 7-0. Bishop Watterson held that 7-0 advantage until early in the second quarter, when Central Catholic found the end zone on a rushing touchdown to tie the game. Central Catholic scored again with less than a minute to go in the quarter to take a 14-7 lead to halftime.
In the third quarter, Central Catholic got a break when Bishop Watterson's punter dropped a snap and was tackled at his own 23 for a turnover on downs. The Fighting Irish scored soon after to make the game 21-7.
Bishop Watterson seemed to have a touchdown midway through the 4th quarter, but it was overturned with replay, and they turned it over on downs on the next play.
Central Catholic then marched down the field and Watson converted a short touchdown run with three minutes left to put the game away. Video of the touchdown is below. Highlights from the game are here.
Lincoln Way East's undefeated run came to an end in the Illinois 8A State Championship game when they fell to Loyola Academy 26-15. It was the second year in a row that Loyola beat Lincoln Way East in the title game.
Loyola jumped out to a 20-7 lead by halftime, and the teams were scoreless in the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, Loyola scored another touchdown to seal the victory. Lincoln Way East continued to battle and scored a touchdown and 2-point conversion later in the quarter, but it was too little, too late.
Lincoln Way passed for 166 yards and rushed for 88 yards behind Janowski and the offensive line. It was Janowski's 40th consecutive start for Lincoln Way.
Of note, Loyola's quarterback is Ryan Fitzgerald, son of former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald. Some highlights from the game are here.
Upsets aren't fun when you're the #1-ranked team. Brophy Prep came into its state semifinal game ranked #1, but fell to #12 Red Mountain 36-35 in an overtime thriller.
Early on, it seemed like Brophy would cruise to victory. The Broncos led 21-0 with six minutes left in the second quarter and seemed to have the game in hand. Instead, Red Mountain scored a touchdown late in the quarter to get some momentum back.
In the first 21 minutes of the second half, Red Mountain went on a 21-0 run of its own. The run culminated in a touchdown with 3 minutes to give Red Mountain its first lead at 28-21.
Brophy responded, marching down the field and scoring a touchdown with 1 minute to go to tie the game again. Red Mountain couldn't respond, and the game headed to overtime.
Overtime consisted of alternating possessions from the 10-yard line. Brophy got the ball first and scored a touchdown, before kicking the extra point. Red Mountain responded again on a touchdown run from running back Isaiah Savoie. It was his fourth touchdown of the game. Red Mountain then went for two and Savoie scored that one too for the upset.
Kennedy had three tackles and a QB hurry in the game. Highlights from the game are here.
Other State Champions
Weisskopf and Williamsburg lost once in the regular season, but stepped up in the playoffs and rolled to their first state title. More on Weisskopf's performance in the title game is here from two weeks ago.
Other State Title Game Appearances
Vander Zee and Central Lyon fell just short in their quest for perfection, losing a heartbreaker in the state title game two weeks ago. More on that game was here.
