Chicago-Area High School Football News and Scores | Season Pass

It didn’t play out the way many expected when Marist hosted Joliet Catholic on Friday night.

The teams had hooked up in epic shootouts the last two seasons and have two of the state’s top prospects, Joliet Catholic’s USC-bound running back, Ty Isaac, and Marist receiver Nic Weishar.

But the defenses managed to keep a lid on it for the most part, and neither Isaac nor Weishar had a touch in the fourth quarter.

What stayed true to form, at least for this year, was Marist’s ability to make the plays it needed down the stretch. Ian Woodworth hit Bryan Polak with a 23-yard touchdown pass with 27.4 seconds left to give the RedHawks a strirring 27-24 win.

No. 8 Marist (5-0, 3-0) took control of the East Suburban Catholic Conference race after coming from 14-0 down against a ranked team for the second time this fall.

‘‘I’m speechless,’’ said Woodworth, who finished 26-for-42 passing for 256 yards with two interceptions. ‘‘We got it done.’’

That was a necessity on Friday, as No. 19 Joliet Catholic (3-2, 2-1) went up 24-20 on Tyler Reitz’s 13-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-two with 1:54 to play.

But Woodworth had more than enough time to march the RedHawks 64 yards on 10 plays, three of them passes to Polak for 48 yards.

“On that [last] touchdown, the middle of the field was wide open,” Woodworth said. “I knew he was going to go right there. ... The O-line did a great job and he made a play.”

Joliet Catholic jumped ahead on a pair of touchdown passes to Isaac, for 21 and 84 yards, both in the first quarter. Isaac gained 11 yards on five carries as he continued to be bothered by a shoulder injury suffered in a Week 1 loss at Providence.

“It’s not as bad as the night it happened, but it’s definitely not 100 percent,” Isaac said. “It’s just going to take time.”

Marist got within 14-7 on a one-yard plunge by Steven McGugan, a defensive line starter who ha never scored a touchdown before. “I’ve been thinking about that since I was in grade school,” said McGugan, who also had two sacks.

Brian Bravo’s 22-yard field goal gave Joliet Catholic a 17-7 halftime lead, but Marist got within 17-14 on a five-yard TD run by Peter Andreotti (24 carries, 158 yards) in the final minute of the third quarter.

Andreotti’s one-yard scoring run made it 20-17 Marist with 5:12 left, but Joliet Catholic went ahed again thanks to Reitz (11 carries, 56 yards). Mike Ivlow ran 10 times for 73 yards for the Hilltoppers and Craig Slowik was 10-of-20 for 265 yards passing.