No one could blame Benet’s defense if it questioned itself in the second half.
But seniors John D’Angelo, Ryan Liszka and Erik Jones helped the Redwings weather the storm Friday night.
Hoffman Estates stormed back from a big first-half deficit, but Benet held the Hawks at bay when it needed to late in the fourth quarter and won 29-23 in a Class 7A opener at Benedictine.
“Most of us are seniors, so we just thought, ‘Hey, we’re not done playing,'” said Jones, who had a 78-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first half and another interception in the end zone to end a Hawks drive in the third quarter.
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The Redwings continued to pad their lead in the first half, thanks to a 15-yard scoring run by Marty Dosen and a 62-yard touchdown pass from Jack Sznajder to Michael Challenger, making it 23-0 at halftime.
But Hoffman Estates (6-4) rallied in the second half, scoring on three of its first four possessions to tie the game at 23-23 with 8:17 left in the fourth.
“It was scary the entire second half, but as long as we pulled out the win I’m a happy man,” Challenger said.
The Hawks got the ball back with 6:52 to play, but D’Angelo and Liszka sacked quarterback Austin Coalson for a 9-yard loss, forcing a punt.
“They wanted to win too, they weren’t going to go down easy,” D’Angelo said. “We all stepped up and played our hearts out.”
Benet (8-2) broke the tie at 3:24 of the fourth on a 30-yard touchdown run by Dosen, who ran for 128 yards on 21 carries.
“It was the highlight of my football career,” Dosen said. “It feels awesome, and hopefully, we’re going to build on it going forward.”
The Redwings defense pinned Hoffman Estates deep in its own territory to close it out.
Jayvon Blissett had seven catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns for the Hawks. His scores of 15 and 29 yards came in the third quarter with Hoffman Estates enjoying a 20-mph wind at its back.
Coalson, who passed for just 37 yards in the first half, went 16-of-29 for 220 yards with two touchdowns.
For Sznajder, more than half of his total yards came on the TD pass to Challenger.
“I know Michael got a great move off the ball, he made his man miss and got wide open, so he made it easy for me,” Sznajder said.
Benet plays the Belleville West-Normal winner in the second round.