Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High knew it was in for a big challenge in its season opener against Illinois powerhouse Joliet Catholic.

Emphasis on the word big.

The Little Hawks got everything they expected and then some on Friday.

Powered by a mammoth offensive line Joliet Catholic racked up 374 rushing yards on its way to a 48-13 win over City High on a steamy night at Bates Field in Iowa City.

“Their offensive line was enormous and exactly as advertised,” City High coach Mitch Moore said. “They were a physical team and boy it showed.”

Operating behind an offensive line that averaged 276 pounds per player senior tailback HJ Grigsby ran for 207 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Joliet Catholic rushing effort.

Senior quarterback Andres Munoz passed for 114 yards and three touchdowns as the Hilltoppers racked up 488 yards of total offense and averaged 8.7 yards per play.

“It starts up front for us, we try to run the ball and establish that ground and pound game that opens up a lot of the play action down the field,” Joliet Catholic coach Jake Jaworski said. “We try to throw the ball to score not pick up five yards and we were able to hit some of those today.”

It was evident early on the Hilltopper offensive line was going to be a problem for City High.

Joliet Catholic started four juniors on the offensive line including tackles Michael Lynch (6-5, 290) and Cam Juricich (6-5, 315) who helped the Hilltoppers control the line of scrimmage throughout the game.

Joliet Catholic scored touchdowns on its first three drives of each half, punted just once and averaged 8.1 yards per carry on 46 rushing attempts.

“I am happy to win the game but also happy to see our guys perform the way they did in an awesome environment,” Jaworski said. “This is a beautiful stadium and a great crowd and our guys battled through the heat.”

Joliet Catholic scored on touchdown drives of four, six and eight plays on its first three possessions and led 20-0 with 9:23 remaining in the first half.

“I thought we were prepared, I thought we were mentally prepared, I really like the maturity of this team but 48 minutes is different than playing in the summer,” Moore said. “The lights turned on and we didn’t handle it.”

City High tried to battle back.

On the first play from scrimmage after Jolie Catholic went up 20-0 senior quarterback Drew Larson connected with Jeremiah Madlock on an 80-yard touchdown pass.

Madlock beat his man on a post route and Larson dropped in a perfect pass.

City High forced the only punt of the game by Joliet Catholic on the next possession.

The Little Hawks then put together it’s best drive of the game going 86-yards in four plays capped by a 60-yard strike from Larson to Connor Cross that cut the lead to 20-13 with 5:40 remaining first half.

“Not everything went right tonight but we did what we know that we can on that drive,” Larson said. “That should have happened more tonight.”

Joliet Catholic answered with a 3-play touchdown drives, all Grigsby runs to push the lead back to 27-13.

City High had a chance to cut into the lead before halftime after Jake Mitchell made a diving interception of a tipped pass but lost a fumble at the Hilltopper 4 yard line.

It was all Joliet Catholic in the second half.

“We knew they were good, we just didn’t execute as well as we could have,” Larson said. “We practiced for everything, we knew what was coming but it was the first week and we weren’t ready.”

Joliet Catholic opened the second half with a 11 play, 65-yard touchdown drive all on the ground to go up 34-13.

The Hilltoppers added scoring marches of 43 and 60 yards.

“We had some breakdowns, we had some mental lapses and breakdowns and credit to their guys that extended plays and made those plays,” Jaworski said. “It was awesome to see how our guys responded after those big plays.”

Larson finished 18-of-25 for 262 yards for City High and rushed for a team-high 32 yards.

“When he was on he was on,” Moore said of Larson. “He made some throws tonight you aren’t going to see a lot of guys make but we just never got in a rhythm and we couldn’t stop them. We could not stop them.”

Carsen Newton caught seven passes for 75 yards and Madlock had four grabs for 120 yards and a touchdown.

Cross caught two passes for 65 yards and a score.

“I think we have some good athletes,” Larson said. “We will keep practicing and every week we’ll get better.”

City High returns to action next week when it travels to Liberty High (0-1).

“Why I like these big games is because this moment is as big as any moment is going to be this year,” Moore said. “Now we know we can emulate this for the next eight games.”

                                        ICH                JC

First Downs               10                    19

Rushes-yards             18-65               46-374

Comp-Att-Int            20-31-0           8-10-1

Passing yards            294                  114

Total yards                359                  488

Punts-avg.                  4-34                 1-37

Fumbles-lost              1-1                   1-0

Penalties-yards         4-35                 7-45

Joliet Catholic                       14  13  14  7  –  48

City High                                0   13   0   0  –  13

JC – Drew Wills 22 pass from Andres Munoz (Patrick Durkin kick)

JC – Keegan Farnaus 9 run (Durkin kick)

JC – HJ Grigsby 9 run (Kick failed)

ICH – Jeremiah Madlock 80 pass from Drew Larson (Keegan Holland kick)

ICH – Connor Cross 60 pas from Larson (Kick failed)

JC – Grigsby 44 run (Durkin kick)

JC – Grigsby 3 run (Durkin kick)

JC – Larry Stringham 10 pass from Munoz (Durkin kick)

JC – Wills 7 pass from Munoz (Durkin kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – City High: Drew Larson 5-32, Dominic Salibi 7-18, Gabe Egeland 6-15. Joliet Catholic: HJ Grigsby 21-207, Nate Magrini 5-55, Preston Coleman 4-42, TJ Jones 7-21, Drew Willis 4-15, Lucas Simulick 1-16, Andres Munoz 1-16, Vince Bremner 2-8, Team 1-(-6).

PASSING – City High: Drew Larson 18-25-0 262, Bobby Bacon 2-5-0 32. Joliet Catholic: Andres Munoz 8-10-1 114

RECEIVING – City High: Carsen Newton 7-75, Jeremiah Madlock 4-120, Dominic Salibi 5-22, Connor Cross 2-65, Parker Sutherland 2-12. Joliet Catholic: Larry Stringham 2-30, Drew Wills 2-29, Keegan Farnaus 2-17, Adrian Washington 1-33, HJ Grigsby 1-5

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