Resilient.
Webster defines it as “recovering readily from illness. depression, adversity and the like”
That one word, totally defines our Voyager Media Publications Week 4 Team of the Week. The Dons of Notre Dame.
On Friday, September 14 at home in Niles, the Dons fell to East Suburban Catholic Conference co-favorite, Marist 28-21. It was a game that Notre Dame head football coach, Mike Hennessey and the Dons, felt they should have won.
“The loss to Marist was a reality check for us,” Notre Dame senior RB/DB Ty Gavin said. “We weren’t going to let that one loss wreck our season.”
Resilient.
One week later, on Friday September 21, in Lisle, at Benedictine University, the Dons faced the undefeated and No. 2-ranked Redwings of Benet Academy. After 48 minutes of tough ESCC action, the Redwings were no longer undefeated. With their resounding 24-7 ESCC victory over Benet, the Dons of Notre Dame are our, Week 4 Team of the Week.
Led by 2017’s ESCC Player of the Year, senior RB/DB Gavin and the Dons’ D, Notre Dame totally took apart, the previously unbeaten Redwings. Led by senior LB Patrick Corden, junior LB Anthony Ranallo and Gavin, the Notre Dame defense, totally shut down, the potent Redwing attack.
“Huge win for us over Benet. Especially after the tough loss to Marist,” Ranallo said.” Bounce back and keep moving forward, was what our coaches told us all week. Don’t let one loss wreck our whole season. We are a really tight team. We have each others back and we went out and played well and beat Benet.”
Resilient.
On offense Gavin rushed for 169 yards and two touchdowns, including a 59-yard touchdown jaunt. Junior running back, Julian Schurr added a 65-yard jaunt to the end zone, for six and Don place-kicker-deluxe, Danny Simon, kicked a 25-yard field goal. Sophomore QB Anthony Sayles, added 58 passing yards to the Don victory.
“Our defense returns only one starter from last season,” Corden said. “We all play together and just fly to the ball. It was a huge win at Benet Friday night. We all played really well.”
Gavin, currently ranks fourth in the area, with his 459 yards and seven rushing touchdowns. Gavin, is the second-ranked scorer in the area, with his 54 points. Schurr ranks ninth in rushing, with his 285 yards and is tied for eighth, in scoring with 30 points. Sayles, has rushed for 223 yard and two touchdowns and thrown for 329 more yards and a pair of touchdown passes. Simon is 13th in the area in scoring, with his 25 points.
“Our defense was outstanding on Friday night against Benet,” Gavin said “It was a great win over a big, Benet Academy team. Our offense made some big plays for us. We have a lot of playmakers on this team. I haven’t been touched much this year and haven’t been hit until I get into the secondary. All the credit goes to my offensive line. C Dominick Deano; RG Pat Banich; RT Craig Kutscheke; LT Dan Yousif; LG Kevin Zegler.”
Up next for the Dons’ is a Friday home ESCC matchup with the Hurricanes of Marian Central Catholic (3-1, 1-1). The Hurricanes, suffered their first loss of the season, 42-7, to the undefeated and state-ranked Roadrunners of Nazareth Academy, last Friday.
“We haven’t beaten MCC in two years,” Corden added. “All week, we will be working hard to come up with a plan, to beat MCC on Friday.”
“We were disappointed with the loss to Marist,” Hennessey said. “I am really proud of the kids for the way they beat a very good Benet team on Friday. We use Ty Gavin in a number of ways. We try to get Ty the ball as much as we can, because he is the type of player that will make us better, by what he does, on the field. Ty,quarterbacks the secondary and does a great job on defense. Our sophomore quarterback, Anthony Sayles worked very hard in the summer and won the starting quarterback job. Anthony is a tremendous athlete and gives us another dimension at quarterback, with his ability to run the ball.”
“Our defense has played outstanding, all season for us. Our inside linebackers, senior Patrick Corden and junior Anthony Ranallo, have been outstanding for us, anchoring our defense.”