Harper cruises, gets No. 3 seed

Harper College took advantage of some not-so-special special teams at Rock Valley College on Saturday.

And the Hawks parlayed that into a 28-7 Midwest Football Conference win in Rockford and a third seed in the East Division playoffs.

Harper (5-4, 4-4) will make its 25th postseason appearance in 27 years when it tries to avenge a 43-27 loss at 1 p.m. next Saturday at No. 2 College of DuPage (6-3, 5-3).

Grand Rapids finished 4-4 in the MFC East but dropped to a fourth-seed with a 10-9 loss to Joliet and a 21-7 regular-season loss to Harper.

Harper was in no danger in its regular-season finale as it took advantage of two partially blocked punts and fumbled kickoff to take a 19-0 halftime lead.

Senica Jackson had the first two scores on 1-yard runs and Garrett Barnas (19-for-40, 138 yards) threw touchdown passes of 3 and 6 yards to John Baldwin (6 catches, 78 yards).

Harper also scored safety on a punt snap out the end zone in its second straight win. Rock Valley (2-7, 1-7) managed only 160 total yards and scored its only touchdown on a pass with 47 seconds to play.

Nazareth 43, St. Viator 0: Nazareth Academy football coach Tim Racki is used to going to the playoffs; his players are not.

If Saturday's 43-0 East Suburban Catholic Conference rout over St. Viator in LaGrange Park is any indication, there won't be any jitters when the playoffs open next weekend.

"I think my experience of being in the playoffs is going to help them a lot because they are very good at listening to me," said Racki, who led Driscoll to the first four of its current string of six state titles.

Racki told his players before the game that St. Viator (4-5, 2-5), needing a victory to keep its hopes for a fourth straight playoff trip alive, would bring a postseason intensity to Nazareth.

The Roadrunners (6-3, 5-2) brought their own intensity.

La Steven McKinney busted loose for a 53-yard run on the game's second play, setting up Nazareth's first score and setting the tone for the game.

"It was all because of the line. If it wasn't for them, I couldn't have done that all. We had to do that in order to win the game," McKinney said.

The sophomore back continued his dominance, finishing with 156 yards and two scores. He was joined by senior back Curtis Cannon, whose 8 carries for 68 yards and a touchdown will give the Roadrunners a solid two-headed backfield in the playoffs.

"It's a luxury. It's players like that who make coaches look good," Racki said. "When you have players, and you have horses, it makes coaches look good. Especially when you have those guys we have up front."

The Nazareth defense didn't lose its edge, even though it would have been easy for them to do that against a St. Viator team playing with its third string quarterback because of injuries to Eric Huber and Dan Faerber.

Senior Mike Landuyt ran the ball well for 96 yards, but the two-way senior starter wasn't pleased with his defensive performance in his last high school game.

"It's pretty much the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my football career. We needed to tackle a lot better," Landuyt said.

Viator sophomore Julian Sipiora was 5 of 10 for 37 yards passing. He also threw an interception.

-- Justin Rosenberg