Plainfield Football Players Named All-ESCC For JCA

CHICAGO – While junior quarterback Craig Slowik and senior wingback Malin Jones were in the process of setting single-game school records Friday night, sophomore tight end Zach Rezin took center stage for Joliet Catholic Academy.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Rezin snagged catches of 35 and 25 yards in the first half and contributed another 28-yard reception in the second half. The Morris native owned the middle of the field against Marist and broke tackles with abandon, adding a weapon to Slowik’s growing arsenal of options.

Watch out for No. 97.

“The coaches were telling us early on that Marist would blitz a lot to play the run and the pass would be open for us,” said Rezin, the son of state senator Sue Rezin. “Then, sure enough, first play it was open.”

Even with junior wingback Ty Isaac rushing for 183 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 20 carries, JCA opened up its offense in a thrilling 56-51 East Suburban Catholic Conference loss to host Marist.

Looking like Tom Brady, Slowik (Shorewood) established a school record with 366 yards on 12-of-20 accuracy, breaking the previous best of 283 by Jim Carlson on 13-of-18 accuracy in 1965 vs. Evanston.

Also shattering a school record was the Northwestern-bound Jones (Naperville), who had six catches for 220 yards. That eclipsed the 168 yards on five catches by Paul Pesavento in 1983 against Sterling.

On top of that, Jones and Isaac (Shorewood) finished with combined yardage of 281 and 241 yards, respectively, as Jones rushed for 61 yards and two TDs on 15 carries and scored twice on passes of 68 and 77 yards. Isaac secured 3 catches for 58 yards and a TD. Both talked about Rezin and Slowik.

“He’s a young kid,” Jones said of Rezin, who has 5 catches for 136 yards this year. “When he’s polished by his senior year, he’s going to be a great one. I can’t wait to see what he ends up being like.”

“Craig took a couple of hits at the beginning, but he stayed poised,” Isaac said. “He stuck with it and threw some great balls. He gave us the best opportunity and we knew we had to help him out.”

NOTES: JCA (7-2) plays host to Lincoln-Way West (7-2) in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs Friday night at Memorial Stadium … With three wins, the Hilltoppers would become the first football program in IHSA history to reach the 100-win mark. JCA enters the postseason with a 97-21 all-time mark and 13 state titles … Isaac was named MVP of the ESCC while Dominick Allen (Minooka), J.B. Butler (Plainfield), Isaac Grashoff (Plainfield), Isaac, Jake Jankowski, Jones, Mike Passo (Plainfield) and Carson Smith (Monee) were named all-conference … Isaac is 15th on the school’s single-season rushing list with 1,481 yards. Next up is Joe Van Tassel with 1,481 in 1999 … Isaac’s 29 TDs put him on a collision course with J.R. Zwierzynski’s school record of 39 in 2001 … Slowik needs only 36 yards to become the 17th JCA quarterback to throw for over 1,000 yards in a season. He is 36-of-58 for 964 yards and 9 TDs this year.