Morgan Park gets revenge, takes down Kenwood in football city title game

By Dominic Scianna

Morgan Park football coach Chris James felt sentimental in preparation for his team’s Chicago Public League (CPL) City Championship matchup on Friday, Nov. 21, against Kenwood Academy. A win would give the Mustangs a spot in the historic Chicagoland Prep Bowl Title game, pitting the champions of the CPL versus the champions of the Chicago Catholic League (CCL).

The Prep Bowl, celebrates its 95th anniversary of competitive play this year, and will take place at the newly-renovated Hanson Stadium on Chicago’s Northside, hosted by the CPL on Friday, Nov. 28, at noon.

James reminisced about his experience as a player, quarterbacking the 2005 Morgan Park Prep Bowl team to a 14-13 victory over Brother Rice that year. So, for good luck, he donned his Prep Bowl jacket, 25 years later, prior to his squad’s city championship title clash with the Broncos at Rockne Stadium.

The Mustangs came out of the gate quickly to open the scoring in the first quarter and never looked back as their Prep Bowl aspirations became a reality for Coach James by defeating Kenwood 30-19 to etch their names in the record books as 2025 CPL city champions.

“It’s special (playing in the Prep Bowl) for me and the program. Morgan Park raised me along with everybody else that’s been associated with the school,” said James. “To be able to take my team to a city championship this year, and a Prep Bowl means something to me and our community.”

Kenwood and Morgan Park are no strangers to one another as CPL foes who stood atop the standings for most of this season and met earlier in the year with the Broncos getting the best of the Mustangs in the regular season, coming away with a 29-22 win on Oct. 18 at Gately Stadium.

That was a motivating factor for the coaches and players to avenge not only the Kenwood loss, but to shake off their first-round defeat in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) state playoffs against St. Francis of Wheaton.

“We want to represent Chicago as one of the best public schools, and we came up short in the state playoffs, so we came back and told ourselves we had to get the job done for the city championship,” said Morgan Park sophomore quarterback Ronald “R.J.” Smith, Jr. “Now we want to put our school on the map in the Prep Bowl against a Catholic school and get a win.”

Smith engineered key drives in the first half, but none were more important than the TD drive just before halftime, which James felt was the difference in the game.

Leading 16-13 with seconds left until halftime, Smith improvised to avoid a sack by the Kenwood defense and found junior wide receiver Travezz Jones in the corner of the endzone. Jones made a spectacular finger-tip, diving grab for the touchdown before falling out of bounds as time expired in the second quarter.

That successful TD catch gave the Mustangs a 22-13 lead.

“I came across the field and saw my quarterback in trouble but he (Smith) made a great play to get me the ball,” said Jones. “I knew the clock was running down and I had to make a play for my team.”

Kenwood (9-3) and head coach Chris Goffer kept the game close to begin the second half. The Broncos staged a goal-line stand, coming up with a big fumble recovery by junior defensive back Triviyon Seay at the Kenwood two-yard-line to stop a long Morgan Park drive with 7:12 left in the third quarter.

Broncos senior QB Kenyonte Louis then put together a 98 yard scoring drive with an impressive passing and running game display that knifed down the field, culminating with Jaeden White’s second touchdown of the game with 2:40 to play in the third, cutting the Morgan Park lead to 22-19.

Louis also scored Kenwood’s first TD on a rush, while Morgan Park got two rushing TD’s from senior Reggie Gray, Jr., in the victory.

The score remained the same until 10:50 remained in the fourth quarter, when Smith found Lathan Barnes over the middle for the decisive TD pass that put the game away for Morgan Park.

Now the Mustangs (9-4) take on Catholic League victor St. Ignatius College Prep, the defending Prep Bowl champions from one year ago. The Wolfpack will try to repeat and maintain bragging rights in the 95th annual Prep Bowl on Friday (November 28) at Hanson Stadium. The Mustangs have other ideas.

“We’re gonna do whatever we have to do to bring the Prep Bowl win home for Coach (James),” acknowledged Jones. “We’ve worked very hard as a team to get to this point.”

Kickoff is set for Noon on Black Friday, and tickets for the Prep Bowl can be purchased by visiting this link, or on Game Day at Hanson Stadium.