St. Edward passing attack perks up with cup of Joe Mullen

St. Edward quarterback Joe Mullen and his receiving corps lit up the Friday night sky in Elgin.

Mullen connected with Nick Duffy and Santos Gomez once and Trevor Loewen twice on touchdown passes before halftime, giving the unbeaten Green Wave control of a game they never relinquished.

St. Edward’s 45-6 win over visiting Chicago Christian maintained the Green Wave’s unbeaten season record and clinched their first Metro Suburban East title.

“They had it going on,” Chicago Christian coach Jim Bolhuis said. “They really looked sharp. Our guys were out of position but those were four devastating pass plays in the first half that took us out of the game.”St. Edward (8-0, 4-0) led 31-6 at halftime, with Mullen racking up more than 250 yards passing. The senior found John deWindt in the second half to finish with five touchdown passes and 360 yards passing on 15-for-19.

Mullen applauded his offensive line and tipped his hat to running back Dwayne Allen Jr., who finished with 91 yards rushing and went into Friday’s game with 1,075 yards and an 8.1 yards-per-carry average.

“Having a back like Dwayne is amazing,” Mullen said. “Teams game plan against him and he’s unselfish. He doesn’t mind not carrying the ball forty times and he opened up the passing game.”

St. Edward led 14-0 after one quarter on a 27-yard TD pass from Mullen to Duffy and a 64-yard TD reception by Santos Gomez.

Chicago Christian (4-4, 2-2) got a 25-yard TD pass from quarterback Christian Bolhuis to Nathan Wigboldy in the second quarter, but Mullen found Loewen on TD passes of 64 and 68 yards to take a 31-6 halftime lead.

“I knew that if I could get by (the Knights’ defense), they wouldn’t be able to catch up with me,” Loewen said. “The line was giving (Mullen) a lot of time and Joe delivered the ball to me in good spots.”

Loewen finished with 186 yards receiving.

“We haven’t faced a good passing team like (St. Edward) this year, and it showed,” Jim Bolhuis said. “We were tough in certain cases but it was spotty.

“Our running back (Colby Rountree) has had some really good games but when teams key on him, we need to have a next step. We got some other people involved, but we couldn’t match that success with the stops we needed.”

St. Edward got a late 11-yard TD run from Mike Dziurgot, but it was the passing attack that owned the night.

“Six of our eight games have been in the rain and Dwayne has been running the ball great,” St. Edward coach Mike Rolando said. “But [Friday] Joe was really on and the offensive line was fantastic.”