This year’s football team is one of the best we ever had. Literally. No other St. Pat’s team made it this far in school history. They were led by senior QB Jermaine Young. Jermaine played his first two years as running back, but moved to quarterback his junior and senior year. “As much as I wanted to play RB, I had to do it for the team,” he said. “And it worked out for the better, look how much we accomplished.”

These guys battled with injuries, including two linemen not playing a majority of the season and senior TE/LB Owen Lyons dislocating his finger. Their playoff run included beating Saint Viator, Sterling and Rochelle.

St. Pat’s beat Saint Viator (3-5) 17-7 in a tough away game to finish the regular season. The next week the Shamrocks traveled two hours away to beat Sterling (7-2) 44-14 in the first round of the IHSA playoffs.

To make history, the Shamrocks needed to win against Rochelle (8-2), a dominant offense that averaged six throwing plays a game. They weren’t going into the game trying to stop the run game offense completely, but at least contain it. “Our defensive line knew what we had to do,” said senior Louie Scanio. “Contain the run game, because that’s all they did.” And they did exactly that. The Shamrocks beat Rochelle 21-14 to advance to the third round of playoffs and make school history.