Adversity can focus the mind sharply. Nazareth wide receiver Jake Cestone displayed that focus admirably on Sept. 26.
Using the upcoming third brain surgery of his sister and his grandmother’s Stage 4 cancer a a motivator and also trying to keep them in a back compartment of his thoughts, Cestone caught four touchdown passes in the Roadrunners’ 48-21 road victory over Joliet Catholic.
“It’s the lessons coach (Tim) Racki’s taught us,” Cestone said. “Enjoy football. It’s a game. It’s where you can escape what’s really going on in your life. Use football as a way out, a way to clear my head. That’s what I did tonight.”
The Illinois State commit grabbed passes from quarterback Jackson Failla of 9, 35 and 30 yards in the second quarter to blow open a game the Hilltoppers had briefly led, then took a 67-yard collaboration to the end zone 1:21 into the third quarter to make it 49-7, outrunning two Hilltopper defensive backs en route to the goal line.
Failla threw six touchdown passes in all for Nazareth (4-1) on a 16-of-20 showing that accounted for 308 of Nazareth’s 398 yards. Unlike many pitch-and-catch duos, this one was not born in backyards or honed in youth football. Failla arrived on campus this fall, his family having moved from Pennsylvania. But they work together like they came from the same crib.
“All credit to my receivers,” Failla said.
Especially Cestone.
“It was really impressive,” Failla said of Cestone’s six-reception, 174-yard night. “He’s such a competitor, wants the ball on every play. When the ball gets in his hands, he makes something happen.”
The Roadrunners’ offensive explosion, in part created by three interceptions of Hilltoppers quarterback Lucas Simulick that brought forth short fields, was mirrored by a defense that gave up merely 206 yards, 102 of them largely against second-stringers with the clock running in the second half. The Hilltoppers (1-4) scored on their opening drive, Simulick’s 24-yard pass to Jayden Armstrong the scoring play, but were bogged down thereafter in the first half.
Racki’s racked up six IHSA championships and 166 wins in 21 years at Nazareth, so has seen everything, and likes what he sees so far.
“We’re better than we were last week and that’s all I can ask for,” Racki said. “This is middle third of the season. We just want to keep carrying momentum.”
Racki’s teams have a tendency to do that.
“The X factor is the culture we build across classes, from freshmen to seniors,” Racki said. “We do a lot of leadership training off the field, how to be a good teammate, how to be a good football player, on and off the field. That’s the secret sauce.
“We have a lot of key guys out, but they really buy in. They play above and beyond their abilities.”