On a night when top-ranked Mount Carmel had its ups and downs on offense, Parker Startz and the defense did some heavy lifting.
The Caravan held Morgan Park’s dynamic skill players in check most of the game and came away with a hard-fought 22-12 home victory over the No. 23 Mustangs.
Junior quarterback Jack Elliott passed for 216 yards and three first-half touchdowns — two to Maurice Densmore and one to Danyil Taylor Jr. But Morgan Park picked off Elliott three times and stopped the Caravan on a pair of fourth-down plays deep in Mount Carmel territory.
“There was obviously a lot of mistakes on the defense and on the offense, but we just found a way to come through and fight hard for the team,” said Startz, a linebacker committed to Ohio.
“He’s our No. 1 captain for a reason,” Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch said. “He’s the leader of the defense, three-year starter for us and he’s playing like a senior.”
Elliott is still easing into the quarterback role after taking over for Blainey Dowling, who led the Caravan to a 14-0 season and the Class 7A title last year.
“We know that you gotta go through some growing pains as a quarterback and I think that sometimes the best play is just throwing the ball away,” Lynch said. “He’s a winner and this is Jack’s year. We believe in him.”
In fact. Lynch’s confidence in the entire offensive unit — which includes Wisconsin commit Darrion Dupree and Navy recruit Alonzo Manning II — is such that he rarely sends the Caravan punting unit onto the field.
“We didn’t put [the defense] in the best field position all day,” Lynch said. “We were super aggressive on offense and that’s what we’re gonna be. The defense bailed us out several times and the offense — we’ve got to move the ball.”
The Caravan took advantage of a bad punt snap by Morgan Park to score on its first offensive play when Elliott hit Densmore with a 22-yard touchdown pass.
After Mount Carmel’s defense forced a turnover on downs at its own 7-yard line, the Caravan drove down to score on Elliott’s 26-yard pass to Taylor. And Elliott and Densmore connected again for a 1-yard TD with 10 seconds left in the first half.
But Morgan Park made it interesting.
Marcus Thaxton hit Chris Durr with a 9-yard TD pass on fourth down late in the third quarter and found Tysean Griffin for an 8-yard touchdown — again on fourth down. That made it 22-12 with 3:07 left in the game.
But the Mustangs never got the ball back as the Caravan ran out the clock.
Griffin, an Illinois recruit, made plays in every phase of the game. He returned Mount Carmel’s first two kickoffs for 17 and 27 yards and ran an interception back 47 yards in addition to his clutch touchdown catch.
Thaxton was 11-of-27 passing for 120 yards, and Durr had eight catches for 66 yards.
“I’m proud of the kids’ effort and how they responded,” Morgan Park coach Chris James said. “If that’s the standard and that’s the No. 1 team in the state, what is Morgan Park? I hope that people see, ‘OK, Morgan Park is legit.’
“You never want to take any moral victories from it. But I think people understand we’re not a regular CPS team.”
