Like the backyard football games before Thanksgiving dinner, the Prep Bowl is a place to dust off plays that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day.
So it was on Friday at St. Ignatius, when the Wolfpack perfectly executed a hook-and-ladder with Patrick Garber living every offensive lineman’s dream of scoring a touchdown.
Senior quarterback Jack Wanzung ran for two TDs and threw another scoring pass in addition to the trick play as St. Ignatius rolled past Young 47-8 in the 94th Prep Bowl.
The Catholic League now leads the Public League 64-28 with two ties. The series dates back to 1927, but wasn’t an annual event in the early days and also skipped the 2021 spring pandemic season.
The advent of the IHSA playoffs in 1974 took some luster off the Prep Bowl and lowered the stakes, allowing coaches to open up their playbooks.
“We’ve run hook-and-ladders before,” Wolfpack coach Matt Miller said. “One of the kids said, ‘Hey, what do you think about this, like the [Detroit] Lions ran a few weeks ago?’
“We’ve worked it a lot. It made its way into practice every day.”
Up 20-0 in the second quarter facing third-and-7 from the Young 19, St. Ignatius called it.
“I was very surprised,” Garber said.
Wanzung passed to Liam Hynes, who pitched back to Garber. The senior lineman did the rest.
“We’ve been practicing that all week,” Garber said. “I finally got a shot and I saw it, and [thought I] might as well take it. I just wanted to … make sure I got in there at all costs.”
Wanzung, who has had his share of touchdowns as the Wolfpack’s starting quarterback for three seasons, was thrilled to share the wealth.
“It meant the world,” Wanzung said. “We brought it up at practice that he might want to score a touchdown. All week we’ve been practicing it and it worked out.”
Most everything did for the Wolfpack (6-6) at the end of an up-and-down year. Promoted to the top-level CCL/ESCC Blue, they finished 3-6 in the regular season before winning three straight in the Prep Bowl playoffs.
Hynes scored on a 14-yard run and a 27-yard pass from Wanzung, Liam Doyle returned a fumble 10 yards for a score and Jayden Logan added a TD run for St. Ignatius, which led 34-0 at halftime.
“This group of guys is so special, especially the O-line,” Wanzung said. “They played so well this year. I think it’s the best O-line we’ve ever had. I’m just sad I’m not gonna play with them again. But it’s really good to end on a championship.”
“As the season progressed, we knew that the Prep Bowl was going to be something that we were looking at,” Miller said. “The guys really jumped all in right away. They embraced it and wanted to go out on our own terms.”
Luke Yolich had a touchdown run for Young (12-2), which was short-handed. Neither starting quarterback Von Konrad nor four-year starting center Nikola Dale played because of injuries and another starting lineman, Markius Woods, left the game after getting hurt.
“We should have had a better week of practice but didn’t,” Dolphins coach Dan Finger said. “I didn’t prepare our guys well enough this week and I think it showed immediately. So a learning experience for me. … We’re gonna miss these seniors. They’ve been an incredible group, done a lot of firsts for Whitney Young during their time here.”