High School Football: Mount Carmel (Ill.) erases 30-point deficit, stuns St. Joseph Regional (N.J.)

You couldn’t have blamed Mount Carmel (Ill.) if it lied down and accepted an 0-2 start to its 2026 season on Friday night. St. Joseph Regional (N.J.) made the trip down to Chicago and had the Caravan in a world of hurt early.

The visiting Green Knights led 30-0 just one play into the second quarter, though the deficit likely felt like 100 in the moment for Carmel head coach Jordan Lynch. His team lost by 19 points in their season-opener last week. It looked like this was going to, stunningly, be far worse for a staunch program that’s rattled off four-straight state titles.

This is high school football, though. Not many leads are insurmountable, especially when you’ve got a loaded roster filled with blue-chip playmakers. Lynch scraped his team off the mat and steadied the waters. The Caravan limped away with a 48-44 win in what will surely be a contender for high school football game of the year.

Mount Carmel quarterback Brady Cloherty connected with senior wide receiver Quentin Burrell down the right sideline for a 35-yard touchdown to give their team their first lead of the night with just over five minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

Cloherty finished with a whopping seven passing touchdowns, four of which came in the first half, somehow shrinking that early 30-point deficit down to two. Burrell, a four-star prospect committed to Michigan , reeled in three of those scores.

The first half was rife with miscues and chaos, and while the second wasn’t free of either, it did feature longer drives, better football and all the tension that comes with a heavyweight battle. St. Joseph led 44-35 after the third quarter, but the Caravan wouldn’t be denied.

St. Joseph poured it on early

It looked like it was going to be an absolute beatdown. It certiainly was for the first quarter-and-a-half. After stuffing Carmel on fourth down near midfield in the opening drive of the game, St. Joseph drew first blood thanks to some trickery. An end-around turned into a passing play as Will Mitchell fired a 27-yard touchdown strike to senior Stalin Knowlden .

Andrew Wilson then exploded up the middle for a 52-yard score, capping off another quick drive to make it 14-0. Carmel then fumbled a punt in the end zone, which the Green Knights pounced on for another score. The ensuing Carmel pass was intercepted. The first quarter ended with St. Joseph forcing a safety.

The Caravan was trailing 23-0 in a flash. That then became 30-0 after Knowlden ran the ensuing kick back for his second score of the night. An absolute mess for the home team. Normally, that spells the end of your night in a hurry.

Mount Carmel comes to life

All it takes is one score to get the ball rolling. That’s a hard sell when you’re down by 30, but once Carmel got on the board, you could see the momentum shift. Junior four-star WR Marshaun Thornton caught two touchdowns in the win, including his team’s first of the evening.

Burrell then got back on the board with a slick one-handed grab toward the back right pylon. It began to snowball from there. St. Joseph was forced to punt on the ensuing possession, and the snap went over the punter’s head, leading to a turnover that gave the Caravan the ball back in the red zone. Senior WR Duran Sims then got in on the action, hauling in a TD courtesy of Cloherty.

St. Joseph had to travel without head coach  Augie Hoffmann , who’s suspended for the first two games of the season for violating school policies around offseason training. It made a questionable decision on the ensuing drive, going for it on fourth down near their own 30-yard line.

Carmel stuffed it, then drove down the field once more, scoring again as Cloherty hit Thornton for the second time. From 30-0 to 30-28 in the blink of an eye. Halftime couldn’t have come fast enough for the Green Knights, who were just riding the highest of highs no less than 20 minutes ago.

The Caravan prevails late

St. Joseph, to its credit, looked un-phased as it scored on the opening drive of the second half. Knowlden burnt the Carmel secondary and was wide-open, hauling in a deep TD pass. The teams then traded scores after finally putting together some long drives that didn’t need one glaring mistake or a wave of penalties to lead to a touchdown.

Yes, the Caravan allowed 44 points tonight, but it’s hard to blame the defense for much of anything that occurred in the first half. It really buckled in and came up with some big stops late as the pressure ramped up. Senior four-star linebacker Roman Igwebuike , in particular, was making heaps of plays all over the field.

Down two scores, Carmel was in need of a jolt and it received just that as Cloherty hit streaking junior tight end Ty Kennedy down the middle of the field for a wide-open touchdown. Surprisingly, Lynch and Co. went for a 2-point conversion that failed, instead of taking the extra point that would’ve made it a 44-42 St. Joseph lead.

That decision wouldn’t come back to bite, however, as the St. Joseph offense continued to stall down the stretch. Carmel got the ball back, worked it down the field and Cloherty fired the game-winning TD pass to Burrell with around five minutes to go. Its defense stood tall two more times, ending with a Joe Tracy interception to seal an absurd comeback victory.

The Caravan, now 1-1, will remain at home next week with Nazareth Academy (Ill.) headed to Chicago. St. Joseph entered as the No. 37 team in the nation and No. 3 team in New Jersey, according to the Rivals Composite Rankings. Now off to a soul-sucking 0-1 start, it will head back to the Garden State and welcome Creekside (Ga.) for another big clash next Saturday, Sept. 5.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →