St. Laurence reaches Class 4A quarterfinals, but wants more

Making the state quarterfinals is a nice accomplishment. 

But after finishing second in the state in Class 4A last season, St. Laurence wants more.

The Vikings took another step in the process on Nov. 9 as they defeated Wheaton Academy 26-14 in a Class 4A second-round game in Burbank.

Next for St. Laurence (8-3) is a visit to Chicago’s North Side to take on DePaul Prep (8-3) in the Class 4A quarterfinals. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“This is awesome,” Vikings coach Adam Nissen said. “Last year, we had a really good run and that was the start of something good that we’re trying to build here. 

“We want to stack (good) years and keep our success moving forward. We’re happy with where we’re at and the quarterfinals are a great accomplishment. But we’re not here to be in the quarterfinals. We have a really good team in DePaul Prep ahead of us. The quarterfinals are great, but that’s not the goal.”

Harley Rizzs, who finished with 152 yards rushing on 24 carries, began the scoring for the Vikings on a 13-yard TD run at 9:39 of the second quarter. 

Rizzs then widened his team’s advantage to 12-0 as he scored on a 12-yard shovel pass from Chase Kwaitkowski with 2:45 to play in the first half.

Cory Les, who had 47 yards rushing on 10 carries, scored on a 1-yard run at 7:31 of the third quarter to make it 19-7. His 6-yard TD run with 2:09 remaining ended the scoring.

“Harley ran really well,” Nissen said. “We put him in the spots to make some plays and he took advantage. He ran hard and we put him in positions he may not have seen the last couple of weeks. He saw some creases and gaps in the defense and he took advantage of that.

“And Cory is a good complement to Harley. We wanted him to touch the ball as much as he can. He’s very explosive and a good football player. He’s a very good runner and he took advantage of the opportunities that we gave him.”

The Vikings’ defense turned in a strong performance against a Wheaton Academy team that scored 30 points against St. Laurence in last season’s Class 4A semifinal.

Brendan Carroll (eight tackles), playing with a broken thumb, and Jimmy McDermott had interceptions for St. Laurence this time. Jace Chamberlain had 10 tackles and Sean Rice added six tackles.

“Our defense played well,” Nissen said. “We had a good game plan in place. We had our hands full against a great team. Our defensive side of the ball played really well and they put our offense in position to make the plays we did.”