Ellington leads big-play Althoff offense into the Class 1A football quarterfinals

Althoff senior standout running back Dierre Hill Jr. did not have a big game on Saturday.

He didn’t need to thanks to an explosive multi-weapon offense led by sophomore quarterback Jayden Ellington and a shutdown effort from the Crusaders’ defense.

Ellington ran for two touchdowns, threw for two more and Crusaders defense kept Carrolton out of the end zone until the third quarter, rolling to a 43-21 mercy rule running clock road win in a second-round IHSA Class 1A playoff game at Carrollton High School.

Althoff Catholic (11-0), seeded No. 1 in the bottom half of the Class 1A bracket, will host fourth seeded Casey-Westfield (10-1) next weekend in a Class 1A quarterfinal matchup.

Winning on the road in the rain was a new challenge for the Crusaders.

“I think overall, we did really good with the execution and not a ton of mental errors, which is good and at this point of the season. That’s what you want to see from the guys,” Althoff coach Austin Frazier said. “We’re starting to click on all cylinders, so we’re really happy with our chances going into each round.”

Hill got Althoff on the board late in the first quarter with a 15-yard touchdown run.

Then Althoff’s defense got busy on Carrollton’s next drive as linebacker Steven Ache picked off quarterback a Carson Flowers pass and returned it to the Hawks 22-yard line. Ache relished coming up with a momentum setting turnover early in the game.

“I got it to the sideline hoping to score and my teammates got a couple of crucial blocks and I got it down in good scoring range for Dierre. There was just a good buzz going around us after that,” Ache said. “The focus today was trying to stop the pass game and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”

Hill ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0 early in the second quarter.

Carrollton (7-4) answered on its next series with a 35-yard field goal by Lucas Howard, cutting tbe lead to 14-3.

That’s when the Crusaders offense and special teams kicked it into high gear, scoring four touchdowns over the last nine minutes of the first half to put the game out of reach.

Logan Thompson started the surge with an 85-yard kick return for a touchdown and then Ellington scored on an 8-yard run, followed by a 4-yard Ellington-to-Kylin Jordan scoring pass.

Ellington then found Charleston Coldon for 9-yard scoring strike as the four-score blitz gave Althoff Catholic a commanding 43-3 lead at the intermission and kicked off the running clock for the second half.

“I was just coming in with a chip on my shoulder, showing them that we’re a team,” Ellington said. “We’ve been working all summer and think we’re talented everywhere (on offense). Everybody can get the ball and we’ve got play makers everywhere.”

Five different players scored touchdowns for Althoff.

Howard scored 4-yrd touchdown run in the third quarter and added a two-yard run in the fourth quarter along with another 35-yard field goal to wrap up the scoring for Carrollton.

Althoff will turn its attention to next weekend’s quarterfinal contest with Casey-Westfield. The Crusaders are looking to get past the quarterfinals fir the first time in three years.

“Hopefully we get the quarters at home next week and win that ad go on to semi’s,” Ache said.