Anybody up for a good ‘ole chess match come Friday night in LaGrange Park?
For a pair of 4-1 teams residing in a six-way tie for second place in the rugged East Suburban Catholic Conference, that’s how Nazareth coach Tim Racki sees his team’s Week 6 meeting with Benet.
That’s how much respect he has for what Pat New continues to build at the helm of the Redwings’ program.
“Very impressed,” Racki said of Benet. “I knew they were going to be strong coming into this season, with what they had coming back and what they had on the lower levels. Coach New always does a tremendous job over there.”
In his first look at the eventual Class 6A state champions last year, Redwings’ junior quarterback Jack Sznajder completed 13 of his 23 passes for 129 yards and an interception in a 35-13 loss to Nazareth.
Nearly a year later, Sznajder has thrown for 1,159 yards with 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions through five games for Benet (4-1, 2-1).
Despite the turnovers, Racki knows the Sznajder his team will see for a second time will be quite different from the sophomore making his sixth career start they saw a year ago.
Marty Dosen’s 492 rushing yards and three touchdowns for the Redwings alongside Sznajder is another problem the Roadrunners’ aggressive defense will need to cope with.
“I think he’s really taken his game to another level,” Racki said of Sznajder. “His accuracy, his poise in the pocket, throws a great ball, makes nice reads, looks off the safeties. So his growth from this year to last year and I was really impressed with him last year – but I can tell that the kid’s been working in the offseason.
“Then Marty, I love the way the kid runs. He keeps his pads low, real patient with the holes opening up. More importantly, he finishes runs. He’s a very hard runner behind that big line.
“So that’s going to be an interesting matchup because they’re going to be bigger than us. Hopefully with our defensive speed and our schemes, that’s going to be a nice chess match – our defense against their offense.”
As he continues to grow at quarterback, Sznajder is well aware of what he has to clean up moving forward – turnovers.
Sznajder was intercepted three times in the Redwings’ 29-25 home victory over Marist last week and threw three interceptions in their only loss, a 29-14 home loss to Notre Dame in Week 3.
Six different Nazareth players have recorded interceptions while playing its aggressive, pressure scheme.
“This week, we’re really going to focus on that,” Sznajder said. “We’re going to have to focus on the heavy pressure they’re going to bring. We’re going to have to mentally focus on protecting the ball more, being more careful with it because we know Nazareth is going to bring a lot of heat at us.”
For the 22nd-ranked Roadrunners, their title defense has gone smoothly through five games – with the exception of a 34-19 loss at Marian Central Catholic in Week 4.
Behind Notre Dame-bound Julian Love and Ivory Kelly-Martin, the Roadrunners (4-1, 2-1) have averaged 47.3 points offensively in their four wins.
While Love is getting a heavy dose of attention from opponents, Kelly-Martin has 782 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns to go alongside Love’s 228 rushing yards and six TDs.
“I think Julian Love – in my estimation – is probably the best player in the Western suburbs, maybe the best player in Illinois,” New said. “I was just so impressed with the way he played last year. So he’s a superstar you got to watch out for. You got to know where he is on the field.
“The other one, Ivory Kelly-Martin, is a really nice player, as well. They’ve got some good linemen back. They graduated all five offensive linemen last year. They’ve got a pretty good crew coming back.”
The task awaiting Tim Cederblad’s defense is daunting given Nazareth’s two-back system that Love and a former Neuqua Valley running back, Nolan Dean, utilized so well last year.
After missing much of the state title run last year with an injury, Kelly-Martin has filled Dean’s shoes as the Roadrunners’ running game has simplified things for quarterback Carson Bartels.
With Love and Kelly-Martin lifting a heavy load, Bartels has thrown for 716 yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions.
If Benet can find a way to limit the production of Love and Kelly-Martin, eyes will then be trained on how Bartels deals with a defense that has forced 13 turnovers, including eight interceptions.
“Our defense always comes up big for us,” Sznajder said. “We’ve faced some tough situations, but our defense always pulls through for us. They’re strong all-around. They just know how to keep us in games and they’ve done a great job all year long and they’re just going to keep it up. They’re getting better and better every week.”
A fifth postseason appearance in six years under New’s stewardship likely awaits the Redwings with their first victory over the Roadrunners since 2012.
While getting to postseason eligibility for Benet is important, a victory over a defending state champion would undoubtedly add some cache and momentum moving forward.
“It would be huge for the program,” New said. “Our guys will be motivated. I think we look at these guys as a rival and they’re close by Benet. It’ll be a great atmosphere on a Friday night in LaGrange.”
