Finally, toward the end of the third quarter, Vatch came in and converted a PAT kick to become the first female in Illinois High School Association football history to score a point in a title game.
That put the exclamation point on a 36-17 victory over Casey-Westfield and gave Immaculate Conception its second championship.
“It still hasn’t kicked in yet,” said Vatch of her PAT with 4 minutes 45 seconds left in the third quarter that stretched her team’s lead to 30-3. “I was thinking, ‘It better go in or I’d be so mad at myself if I missed.’
“I thanked my teammates. A football team has a special bond that no other team can have.”
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The Knights were 4-4 when they held a two-hour, players-only meeting in the basement of quarterback Will Cronin’s house to sort out some team issues.
“We were brutally honest with each other,” said 6-foot-6-inch, 250-pound offensive tackle Matt Purdom. “Hurt feelings didn’t matter. Some of us needed a different perspective.”
They went on to win six in a row in salvaging a season dedicated to ex-coach Bob Cozzi, 57, who died last summer from a heart attack. Cozzi led IC to the 3A title in 2002.
The Knights (10-4) made a little more history, becoming the first team to win a title despite four losses.
“This is just awesome,” said Paul Hornstra, who scored twice in the second half on runs of 1 and 16 yards and finished with 138 yards on 25 carries. “We knew if we just got in (the playoffs) that no one would stop us.”
Casey (13-1) took an early 3-0 lead on Clinton Scott’s 32-yard field goal but, with 5:23 left in the second quarter, Robert Peachey scored on a 6-yard run to put IC up 7-3.
Three plays later, Erik Hansen intercepted a Mitch Snyder slant-in pass and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown.
On IC’s next possession, a 41-yard pass from Cronin to Antonio Taylor set up Carlos Rodriguez’s 9-yard scoring run. The trio of unanswered touchdowns gave the Knights a 21-3 halftime lead.
IC outrushed Casey 306-16, but Snyder passed for 285 yards and set 2A title-game records with 22 completions and 36 attempts.