Joliet Central was down, but not out.

Trailing by two at home against a Bloom team they dominated a few weeks ago and without their star player following her ejection, the Steelmen needed to go 78 yards in less than two minutes.

And that’s exactly what they did after Elliana Fowler connected with Alexis Pedrosa for a 75-yard pass to put the Steelmen on the 3-yard line. The next play, Fowler took it in herself to trim the deficit to two. The Steelmen appeared to tie things up on a successful two-point conversion with 1:42 left, but the ball was snapped before they were set, resulting in a penalty and repeat of the attempt from 5 yards further back.

This time, they were unable to get it, and Bloom escaped Joliet Central with a 14-12 win.

Joliet Central (1-10) previously beat Bloom 38-14 on Aug. 30, but found itself playing from behind most of the game.

While the defense mostly held strong, led by Aniya Phillips (three TFLs, one sack), the offense struggled early on. Quarterback Georgiana Majerus had a few nice connections with Fowler and was outstanding running the ball, but her completion percentage was less than 50% and she was tossed from the game in the fourth quarter after her second personal foul.

The large quantity of penalties called on Central resulted in a great deal of frustration on the Joliet Central sideline. Coach Carlotta McLaurin stressed that was no excuse.

“We’ve got to finish,” she said. “It was vengeance for [Bloom]. We beat them the last time, and they wanted to get us back. We have to round out our offense and defense, but we have to play the game no matter what the calls are. They got distracted by some of the calls, and when that happens, you can’t focus on what you’re supposed to be doing.”

It’s been a challenging follow-up season to the Steelmen’s debut in 2024, a campaign in which they won only one of 12 games played. They’ve been far more competitive this year, however, reaching double figures in points five times, crossing into the 30-point threshold on three occasions.

A big part of that has been the athleticism of Majerus and the skill set of Phillips. It’s also impressive that the group has managed to improve so much when about 40% of last year’s team is no longer there.

“We’re just trying to build on the blocks that we do have,” McLaurin said. “There’s a lot of talent. We’re just trying to make sure we run like a well-oiled machine and that’s where we’re getting to. Being in the second year, it’s had its challenges, but we’re working on it. I have great coaches helping me, and we’re working together in training.”

McLaurin added that the team is much further along than this point last year in terms of the fundamentals. That showed at times, including Majerus’ 3-yard scoring pass to Ta’Niya Banks with 1:42 left in the first quarter. Majerus ran for 90 yards on eight rushes, while Fowler accounted for 65 total yards of offense.

The team showed resiliency, too. Bloom initially marched downfield on its first possession and reached the Steelmen 6-yard line when the defense forced a turnover on downs. Central also could’ve folded, down eight with Majerus out, but Pedrosa came up with an enormous catch, and Fowler had the score.

So while growth is needed, Central is heading in the right direction. The team isn’t resting on that laurel, as Phillips said, the team knows how much improvement is needed.

“I feel like we could’ve done better in the third and fourth quarter,” she said. “We tried to pick it up and come back and we did what we had to do. It’s a sad loss, but we did our best to get things rolling. ...I want to see us try and fix our mistakes. I think we need to get out of our heads and just get ready for the next game.”