Jack Elliott’s head told him to be careful in his first game back after an injury layoff, but his heart told him to play with his usual fearlessness.
The heart won out as Elliott rallied No. 2 Mount Carmel back from a seven-point halftime deficit to beat No. 12 Joliet Catholic 35-21 Friday night in Chicago.
In the first matchup since 2007 of the two teams tied for the lead in state titles with 15 apiece, Mount Carmel (5-2) scored three times in a six-minute span of the third quarter to pull away.
Elliott completed 11 of 22 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns, including a 78-yarder to freshman Marshawn Thornton that broke a 14-14 tie. The Vanderbilt commit ran less than usual, finishing with seven carries for 35 yards.
Elliott missed last week’s 16-13 loss to Brother Rice. He didn’t resume throwing till Thursday and wasn’t cleared to play until Friday morning.
How did he feel? “Good enough to win,” he said.
Elliott felt the vibes around his return.
“A lot of people were cautious about me,” he said. “But I gotta come out here and help my team win, whatever they need.”
Caravan coach Jordan Lynch understood the balancing act involved.
“I just want to be careful with him running the ball,” Lynch said. “I want to be smart. I know the kid’s tough, but I didn’t want to be stupid either. But football happens, too, and plays break down.
“He took a few shots today but he hopped right back up and I think it only fueled his fire.”
Elliott had plenty of fire when the Caravan went inside at halftime trailing 14-7.
“I don’t think we could have played a worse half of football,” he said. “And that was the positive going into the second half — you can’t get worse. It’s only up from there.”
And it was. On Mount Carmel’s first possession of the third quarter, Elliott hit sophomore Quentin Burrell for 41 yards to the Hlltoppers’ 1-yard line. Danyil Taylor Jr., who had 111 yards and two TDs on 16 carries, scored on the next play to tie it at 14.
The long TD to Thornton came on the next drive and the Caravan got the ball back when Patrick Breakey recovered a Joliet Catholic fumble. Four plays later, Cooper Lehman scored on a 41-yard endaround and it was 28-14 with 1:56 left in the third quarter.
Elliott’s second TD pass, a 21-yarder to Lehman, pushed the lead to 35-14 with 3:22 remaining.
“We told everyone it’s time to man up,” Elliott said of his halftime message. “It’s time to grow up. It’s Week 7 and we want to … go win state. It doesn’t matter what age you are. I know we’ve got a lot of young guys this year … but everyone’s got to grow up.
“And they grew up [in] the second half.”
Mount Carmel’s defense contributed as well, stopping Joliet Catholic (4-3) on downs twice inside the Caravan 5-yard line and getting two takeaways.
The Hilltoppers did have a pair of 100-yard rushers. Nate Magrini ran 18 times for 139 yards and a TD, while Larry Stringham had 19 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown.
“Against really good teams, you can’t give up third-and-30, you can’t turn the ball over. you can’t have penalties,” Hilltoppers coach Jake Jaworski said. “It just kind of came unraveled and that was disappointing.”