Carmel sprints past Wheeling

Besides their Class 7A first round playoff game, Carmel and Wheeling also put on a clinic Friday night in Mundelein, courtesy of the offenses.

Carmel handled the run, racking up 496 yards on the ground alone, while Wheeling fully addressed the pass by tallying 373 yards through the air.

Together, the two juggernauts combined for a whopping 955 total yards.

Meanwhile, they also scored 78 points, in a fast and furious, game of one-upmanship that eventually swayed in Carmel's favor.

The fourth-seeded Corsairs earned a 45-33 victory over No. 13 Wheeling by scoring three of the game's final four touchdowns. Wheeling had held a 26-24 lead early in the third quarter but went down by 12 points by the end of the quarter and could get no closer than five points the rest of the way.

With the win, Carmel, which was without starting quarterback Andrew Nerup (mono) and then lost Arizona-bound receiver Jack Baucus to a knee injury in the first quarter, moves to 9-1 on the season. The Corsairs also advance into next weekend's second round game at No. 12 Woodstock, which upset No. 5 Machesney Park Harlem, 29-22.

"A track meet broke out tonight," Carmel coach Andy Bitto said. "In the middle of the third quarter, I told my (assistant coach) upstairs (in the press box) that we were going to need to score 50 points to win this game. It was just one of those nights where you knew they were going to keep making plays."

Wheeling jumped out to a 7-0 lead by capping off an 11-play opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Matt Holmes to James Kurtz. That seemed to trigger all kinds of confidence in Holmes, who threw 2 more touchdowns to Kurtz before halftime, including a 78-yard bomb.

"He was just really tough," Carmel defensive lineman Steven Lester said of Holmes. "He was really, really, really fast."

By halftime, Holmes had rolled up 229 passing yards. On the game, he finished with 373 yards and completed an impressive 24 of 36 attempts.

"I knew that kid was good, but wow," Bitto said emphatically. "We got him out of the pocket, but he kept making plays."

In preparing for the game, Bitto was sure that Holmes would use his quickness to rush the ball. But Carmel is giving up less than 70 rushing yards per game so the Wildcats decided that they would have more luck throwing the ball.

"We knew we weren't going to be able to go between the tackles on Carmel," Wheeling coach Dave Dundar said. "The plan was to go out wide. We felt like we could throw the ball on them and move the ball downfield. Matt had a great game out there."

A record-setting game, in fact. In addition to all the yards he piled up, Holmes threw for 5 touchdowns _ 3 to Kurtz (10 catches 171 yards) and 2 to Michael Zimmer (9 catches, 69 yards). Meanwhile, Michael Barton hauled in another 5 passes for 133 yards for the Wildcats.

"I just felt like everything was going good," Holmes said. "The line was giving me a lot of time, which was great. And the receivers were getting open. They stepped it up for this game."

But then, so did Carmel's running backs, who were running with the ball just as gluttonously as Wheeling was passing it.

Senior Mike Taylor rolled up a career-high 250 yards on 31 carries (and scored 2 touchdowns) while Eric Stevenson (also 2 touchdowns) added another 150 yards on 13 carries. Jimmy Miller and quarterback Larry Amato, who started in place of Nerup, combined for another 100 yards between them.

"All these yards...it's got to be a school record for us," Taylor said proudly. "We just have so many weapons on offense."