Nazareth’s defense dominates Providence, which loses its first game after firing Tyler Plantz

Two teams facing a midseason gut check met up Friday in La Grange Park.

No. 5 Providence spent the last week in the middle of a media firestorm after it fired head coach Tyler Plantz. The unusual midseason coaching change caught the attention of casual sports fans and the local TV media.

For Nazareth, the problems all had been on the field. The Roadrunners were highly touted in the preseason but lost three of their first four games. The defeats were to good teams and Nazareth is missing several of its top players because of injuries, but the season risked heading down a negative path with another loss.

‘‘Our two senior captains have been injured, and we have had a lot of adversity against us,’’ Roadrunners wide receiver Jackson Flickinger said. ‘‘We had meetings all this week about staying together, and we took that super-seriously.’’

No. 22 Nazareth dominated defensively and pulled out a 17-7 victory. It was the first loss of the season for the Celtics, who now are led by interim head coach Adam Nissen. He previously was their offensive coordinator.

Nissen acknowledged before the game that a loss was likely to fan the flames of controversy that started Sunday, when Providence announced Plantz’s firing. But he isn’t worried about how his team will handle the defeat internally.

‘‘Our senior group is awesome,’’ Nissen said. ‘‘I have no doubt we will bounce back. We will watch some film and get ready. We will be ready next week.’’

The Celtics (4-1) had a chance to cut the deficit to one possession when they recovered an onside kick with 8:40 left, trailing 17-7.

But Roadrunners junior defensive lineman John Bukovac stepped up with a big sack on the next play. And junior linebacker Harry Keenan grabbed an interception on fourth down with just more than a minute left that sealed Nazareth’s victory.

‘‘We had to stay locked in as a team and trust each other and get it done,’’ Keenan said.

Sean Trayser and Henry Walz had interceptions for the Roadrunners in the first half.

‘‘The defense was excellent,’’ Nazareth coach Tim Racki said, ‘‘especially with the weapons Providence has. Their running game is lethal.’’

But the Roadrunners’ running game stole the show. Charles Calhoun put Nazareth (2-3) ahead 17-0 with a six-yard touchdown run to cap a drive that sucked up most of the third quarter.

‘‘That was, like, a 10-minute drive,’’ Calhoun said. ‘‘I could feel it. We were on a roll. Once we get on a high, there is no taking us down.’’

Calhoun had 24 carries for 103 yards, and Jack Parisi added 14 carries for 77 yards.

Roadrunners quarterback JJ Chapman was 7-for-16 for 89 yards. He threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Charles Heck late in the first half. Flickinger added five catches for 42 yards.

‘‘We really came to play a complete football game,’’ Racki said. ‘‘And that is hard to do after an emotional loss last week. Our kids had an edge all week.’’

Providence running back Broden Mackert had 17 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown. Celtics quarterback Dominic Vita passed for 90 yards and threw three interceptions.

‘‘We definitely knew they had been through some adversity this week with their coach being fired,’’ Calhoun said. ‘‘We came out hard. We knew it would be a game to fight for, and we wanted to use that to our advantage.’’

Nazareth limited media access to the game, and no TV cameras or independent videographers were present.

Otherwise, it was business as usual for Providence despite all the controversy around Plantz’s firing. A handful of Celtics fans in the crowd wore white T-shirts that read, ‘‘We support coach Plantz.’’

‘‘We left too many plays on the field,’’ said Nissen, who was previously a head coach at St. Laurence. ‘‘A couple of turnovers. Didn’t execute like we normally do. We had a good week of practice and were pretty locked in on what we were trying to do. We had the opportunities at the end of the game, we just couldn’t capitalize on it.’’