MSL Football Playoffs: Mount Carmel Was Prospect's Dream Opponent in 2005 Class 7A Championship Game
Beating Mighty Caravan Was Memorable Third Title in Five Years for Knights
Winning multiple championships is a bit like having multiple children. Each of them has their endearing qualities and differences that a coach/parent can appreciate. They also typically try not to play favorites toward one over the others.
All three of Prospect football’s Class 7A football state championships in a five-year span had their own special aspects. The first in 2001 was a perfect run for a program that was perfectly awful a few years earlier. The second one in 2002 was a testament to perseverance and overcoming adversity in arguably one of the best seasons for Mid-Suburban League history.
Prospect had tremendous respect for the excellent Edwardsville program it beat for those two crowns. But the reality was a school nearly 300 miles away outside of St. Louis didn’t have the same allure as an opportunity to play another school on Chicago’s South Side for a state championship on the Thanksgiving weekend of 2005.
Mount Carmel was then, as it is now, one of the premier high school football programs in Illinois. The current group of Knights had the tough challenge of facing the Caravan on its home turf for a 2023 second-round Class 7A playoff game and lost 49-15.
The Knights of 18 years ago had the daunting task of facing unbeaten Mount Carmel on the turf of the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium in Champaign. In the closing six minutes of their semifinal rout of Belvidere, their fans started chanting “We Want Carmel. We Want Carmel.” To their credit, the players and coaches didn’t deal the “we don’t care who we play” card ahead of a memorable 20-14 victory to cap their title run.
Mount Carmel’s 10 state titles going into the 2005 championship ranked second only to the 12 of Joliet Catholic in Illinois. Then-head coach Frank Lenti still holds the state records for titles (11) and title-game appearances (16). The program’s alums included NFL stars Donovan McNabb and Simeon Rice. Current head coach Jordan Lynch, who returned to his alma mater and won titles last year and in 2019, quarterbacked Northern Illinois to the Orange Bowl as a junior and finished third in the 2013 Heisman Trophy voting.
“I think it’s awesome,” Prospect junior safety Mike Dazzo said in advance of the matchup. “I’ve always wanted to play against them. I’ve heard my dad talk about them so I can’t wait.”
Most observers thought 2005 was a “wait until next year” for the Knights. They were coming off a 4-5 season with a relatively young team that got knocked around in their opener by Downers Grove North. But they were one of those teams that just kept getting better each week. And there was no next year for seniors like Pat Burnton and quarterback Matt Bowman.
“They’re a great team, but I think we’ll go down there and be ready to play our style of football,” Burnton said of the Caravan, who moved up in class in 2005 because of the IHSA’s new enrollment multiplier instituted for private schools.
“It’s definitely fun to be able to play a team at that level with the track record to go with it,” said Bowman, who had lost his starting job before the season but regained it in Week 4. “If we win this game it really proves something.”
There weren’t many outside of Prospect who expected it to happen. But the Knights never trailed and broke a 7-7 tie on a pair of 6-yard touchdown runs with 5:50 and 2:26 to play by Bowman. Mount Carmel got a touchdown in the final minute but couldn’t recover the onside kick.
“A statement game for our program,” said wide receiver Brian Hanneman afterward.
You could tell among the players and particularly the coaches - which included defensive coordinator and current associate principal Frank Mirandola - that beating Mount Carmel did mean a bit more. It also provided the happy ending to the dream head coach Brent Pearlman talked about a few days before the game. Pearlman’s dream ended with the teams running on the field.
“I told them in Week 4 I had a dream we were playing Mount Carmel in the finals,” Pearlman said. “For it to come true is unbelievable.
“There’s an added element here … a chance to see what it’s all about this week. I think our program needs a game like that. Any time you get down there is great but you add a game of this caliber and it’s a great opportunity for us. I think it will bring out the best in our kids.”
There was no question that it did.
Pearlman's teams were so tough. Frank Mirandola is first class! Another great job, Marty!