Providence’s Brayden McKay and Isaac Patton checked off a couple career milestones on Friday night, and they did it in emphatic fashion.
McKay took the opening kickoff 92 yards down the right sideline for his first kick return touchdown, and Patton had a 96-yard interception return for his first pick-six as the No. 5 Celtics earned a dominant 27-0 home win against Will County rival Joliet Catholic.
Broden Mackert broke off a 69-yard touchdown run and Dominic Vita threw a 22-yard TD pass to Jaden Malone for Providence (3-0), which beat JCA for the first time since 2023.
The Celtics are winning with some of the best young impact players in the area. McKay, Patton and Vita all are juniors, while Malone is a sophomore. Of the players contributing to the scoring, only Mackert is a senior.
McKay was the secondary returner last season behind Xavier Coleman, who’s now playing at Western Illinois.
“This year was my opportunity,” McKay said. “Last game they didn’t kick me the ball. Game before that, they weren’t ready to kick me the ball either. So they finally kicked me the ball [and] I had to show what I can do.’
The quick score was just what the Celtics needed, Patton said.
“The whole sideline got hyped,” he said. “The bleachers got hyped as well. Everybody was hyped for the kid.”
As they were for Patton late in the first half. Down 14-0, Joliet Catholic (1-2) got.big defensive play of its own when Dylan Travis picked off a Providence pass and returned it to the Celtics’ 22.
But Patton flipped the momentum two plays later with his 96-yard pick-six. He saw the receiver he was covering go out, saw another Hilltopper coming and jumped the route for the intercepetion. Then it was a foot race.
“Read the blocks, took it to the end zone,” he said.
In the second minute of the third quarter, Mackert broke off his big run en route to a 12-carry, 109-yard night. Vita threw for 101 yards on 9-of-14 passing with one interception.
Mackert’s TD made it 27-0 and was more than enough offense against Joliet Catholic, which was held to 107 total yards.
“The big thing is just every time they get a chance to make a play, they take advantage of it,” Providence coach Tyler Plantz said of his players. “A couple of those guys made some great picks and then every single kid — I mean, testament to the 10 other guys that are out there throwing blocks for their teammates. … That’s the coolest thing.”
Plantz appreciates the Celtics’ selflessness.
“It’s never, ‘Look at all the yards I had, how many touches I had,'” he said. “It’s, ‘How did we all work together?’ And [we’re] starting to build that identity of a team that plays together, whether it be blocking on a kickoff, a punt.
“Doing all the little things that we’re starting to figure out as a program has been really, really awesome.”