This one didn\u2019t come easy for Jackson Failla and Nazareth. The three-time defending Class 5A champions, playing up in 6A this season, fell behind by two scores early against visiting Lake Zurich in a quarterfinal on Saturday afternoon and were still down by 12 with under three minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Failla, the Roadrunners\u2019 starting quarterback, was replaced for a fourth-quarter series that went nowhere. But he went back in with 3:27 remaining and led Nazareth on two scoring drives that produced a wild 24-21 win.<\/p>\n
The Roadrunners (10-1) host Fenwick (9-3), which beat Burlington Central 49-21, in the semifinals next weekend. \u201cI was struggling early on and I just wasn\u2019t ready to quit, and neither was anybody else,\u201d Failla said. \u201cAnd we really just came together and we believed in each other and we made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nazareth burned all three of its timeouts on defense in the fourth quarter to preserve some time for the offense. After throwing a pair of incompletions, Failla hit three straight passes, the last a seven-yard TD to Charles Calhoun with 2:36 remaining to pull Nazareth within 21-16.<\/p>\n
Nazareth\u2019s Frankie Nichols (4) executes an onside kick.
\nAllen Cunningham\/For the Sun-Times
\nAn onside kick boomeranged off one of Lake Zurich\u2019s up men and Cash Coleman recovered for Nazareth at its own 48. Six players later, Failla found Trenton Walker for a 15-yard score and the Roadrunners had their first lead of the game with 1:23 remaining.<\/p>\n
Lake Zurich (9-3) turned it over on downs with 47 seconds left and Nazareth ran out the clock. \u201cI guess there was some doubt in my mind,\u201d Failla said. \u201cBut everyone kept believing in me. And to be able to do that with everybody else, it was just awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker, one of the state\u2019s top uncommitted seniors, had six catches for 75 yards, all after halftime. Failla finished 12-of-25 passing for 145 yards with one interception. Justin Watson had 13 carries for 74 yards and Nazareth\u2019s first touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went over to my sideline when I heard it was a little bit down and I told my team that we had to pick it up because this game\u2019s not over yet,\u201d Walker said. "… I just told my quarterback, Jackson, that he could trust me in the late stretch.\u201d \u201cTheir game plan, both offensively and defensively, was incredible,\u201d Nazareth coach Tim Racki said of Lake Zurich. \u201cThey slowed us down, the most we\u2019ve been slowed down all year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are the Roadrunners feeling any pressure with the state-title streak? \u201cIt sure seemed like that this first half,\u201d Racki said. \u201cI thought we were filled with a little too much anxiety and focusing on the outcome instead of the process. That\u2019s what I said at halftime \u2014 that\u2019s what gets you in trouble.\u201d Lake Zurich led 14-0 on a pair of long touchdown runs, a 69-yarder by Kaden Abrantes and a 45-yarder by Christopher Chang. Brock Rubicz\u2019s three-yard TD run made it 21-9 Bears 45 seconds before halftime. Abrantes finished with 128 yards on 22 carries.<\/p>\n
A: Nazareth won the game 24-21.<\/p>\n
A: The turning point was when Nazareth recovered an onside kick with 2:36 remaining, which led to their first lead of the game.<\/p>\n
A: Jackson Failla, Trenton Walker, and Justin Watson were key players for Nazareth, while Kaden Abrantes and Christopher Chang were key players for Lake Zurich.<\/p>\n
A: Nazareth will host Fenwick in the semifinals next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nazareth’s Comeback Victory A Thrilling Turnaround This one didn\u2019t come easy for Jackson Failla and Nazareth. The three-time defending Class 5A champions, playing up in 6A this season, fell behind by two scores early against visiting Lake Zurich in a quarterfinal on Saturday afternoon and were still down by 12 with under three minutes remaining. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/ae725f1\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2000x1142+0+129\/resize\/1461x834!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fd4%2F6c%2F24a52f5f480f83be8dcd3502b13e%2Fmc-cst-111625-7002.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32231,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32229\/revisions\/32231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}