Motivation comes in many different forms.
For Benet – in the postseason for the fifth time in six years under Pat New – that shouldn’t be much of an issue.
A visit from 21st-seeded St. Charles North to Lisle on Saturday to open up the Class 7A postseason represents an opportunity for the 12th-seeded Redwings to make amends for missed opportunities.
“For us, it’s been the last two years,” Benet coach Pat New said. “I know we had Mount Carmel, who ended up winning state (in 2013) and then last year was Hinsdale Central. So I think, this year, we’re pretty focused. We’re ready to go. We’re beyond the point of just happy to be here. Now we want to take it to the next step.”
The next step will require getting a victory over the North Stars, which went 7-2 while just dropping games to Geneva and Batavia.
Redwings’ junior quarterback Jack Sznajder comes into Saturday with 1,784 passing yards and 14 touchdowns and accounted for all three touchdowns in their 21-14 victory over Marian Catholic last week.
Sznajder’s ability to score all three of those touchdowns on the ground for Benet (7-2) is a good sign as it looks to try and take some pressure off of his right arm.
“I think Jack just showed some great leadership, running some option and getting it in the end zone,” New said. “We just weren’t executing that well on the passing game. We need to do that if we’re going to be successful. I think we had over 400 yards of offense, but just couldn’t finish drives.”
The return of junior running back Marty Dosen from a hip pointer, which forced him to miss one game, should take pressure off of Sznajder.
In eight games, Dosen has 562 rushing yards and three touchdowns while Alec McEachern and Charlie Weidenbach have contributed in the running game as well.
For New, the objective on offense is pretty simple.
“I think protecting Jack is key and then just trying to establish some type of a run game, as well,” he said.
To that end, consider that putting the losses to Geneva and Batavia aside, the North Stars’ defense has allowed a total of 51 points – highlighted by posting shutouts of West Chicago and Elgin.
While Benet is in the postseason for the fifth time since 2010, St. Charles North has reached the postseason a second straight time after a four-year absence from 2010-13 and has won four straight games.
Behind junior quarterback Zach Mettatal, the North Stars have scored at least 28 points in every game, with its 28 points in a 20-point loss to Batavia marking a season low.
Mettatal has thrown for 1,770 yards to go with 22 touchdowns while only being intercepted five times for an offense that averages 40.6 points a game.
Courtesy of 850 yards and 13 touchdowns, junior running back Eric Lins gives Mettatal a workhorse back to hand off to while four receivers have at least 313 receiving yards.
“I think it looks like a really evenly matched game,” New said. “I think we’re two very similar teams. Offensively, they look a lot like Marist, which is a complement. They do a lot of things, a lot of different things, score a lot of points. So we’ll certainly have our hands full with that.
“They have a quarterback who’s kind of similar to the Marist quarterback (Brendan Skalitzky). (Mettatal) runs well and really has a good, pretty accurate arm. But they mix it up. They mix up run and pass pretty well.”
Over the course of the summer and throughout the early parts of the season, New has made mention to his charges that he sees some of his 2012 team in them.
That team won 11 games and reached the Class 7A state semifinals before losing to Lincoln-Way East a step away from Champaign.
Can this group go on a similar run and possibly make a run to DeKalb come Thanksgiving weekend?
Only time will tell, but New knows his team has a huge first step to climb in St. Charles North.
“It’s really hard to say,” he said. “I think this first game gives us enough to worry about. These guys are really good. We’re just truly taking it week by week.”
