Shorewood's Isaac Speaks Up For JCA

Statistically speaking, junior wingback Ty Isaac has emerged this season as Joliet Catholic Academy’s leading rusher, receiver and punt returner. He added another wrinkle last week.

Vocal leader.

“Everything starts in practice,” Isaac said at Memorial Stadium, moments after the Hilltoppers suffered a 24-21 East Suburban Catholic Conference upset at the hands of Nazareth. “If you get lax, you get beat. We have to work hard the rest of the season so we won’t have to deal with something like this again.”

Although JCA (5-1, 4-1) fell behind Nazareth (5-1, 5-1) by a 24-7 score early in the fourth quarter, the Hilltoppers rallied behind back-to-back touchdowns from Isaac on a 44-yard catch and an 8-yard run.

Isaac, who has rushed for 983 yards on 92 carries and gained 174 yards receiving on 6 catches in scoring 17 TDs, credited the perfect pass of junior quarterback Craig Slowik, a fellow Shorewood resident.

“Craig threw it up, I went up and I got it,” Isaac said. “I ended up beating somebody to the end zone, and if we capitalize on our next possession, I’m smiling right now. Things like this are going to happen. We can’t win every game, so we just have to come back and beat everybody else from here on out.”

“We still have a shot at winning conference with a three-way tie,” JCA coach Dan Sharp said. “This will be a measuring stick for us. We either can feel sorry for ourselves or come back by working extra hard.”

Afterward, Sharp pointed to the TD allowed with 20.1 seconds remaining in the second quarter that gave the Roadrunners a 17-0 lead as being pivotal. That summed up a lackluster homecoming first half.

“We were giving up too much penetration inside and that slowed up our blocking schemes,” he said. “And we gave up too many yards rushing. We’ll go back, take a look at the film and fix things.”

DEFENSIVE MODE: JCA’s defense learned a valuable lesson about playing four quarters against Nazareth. The Roadrunners gained 245 of their 383 yards in the first half. The Hilltoppers contained Joshua Moore (37 carries, 173 yards) after halftime, holding him to 77 yards on 20 carries.

“We came out after halftime with a fire inside of us and tried to give our best,” said senior safety Dominick Allen, a Minooka native. “We learned you have to play the whole game, not just a half.”

NOTES: It was Nazareth’s first win over JCA in seven meetings, the closest previous margin of victory being 43-16 in 2005 … The Hilltoppers are 27-8-2 all-time against tonight’s opponent, Marian Catholic … A good sign through six games is how well the Hillmen have done in the third and fourth quarters, outscoring opponents by margins of 83-13 and 49-24, respectively … The first quarter also has been a strength, with a 65-16 range. The second quarter has trended out as the lull at 59-39.