Goal-line stand then 99-yard TD crush Ramblers’ comeback hopes against Caravan

Thanks to an opening round bye, Loyola Academy will have two weeks to regroup following its only loss of the season before being a host team in the second round of the IHSA Class 8A playoffs the weekend of Oct. 30.

In pursuit of their fourth Class 8A state title in five years, the third-seeded Ramblers will play the winner of the Opening Round game in which 30th-seeded Evanston (5-4) will be at home against 35th- eeded Minooka.

The pairings in all eight classes were announced Saturday night, Oct. 17.

The introduction of 16 byes per class has added 128 teams to the tournament for a total of 384.

Lincoln-Way East (9-0) is the top seed in Class 8A and the Griffins’ second round opponent on their home field in Frankfort will be the winner of the opening round game that sends 33rd seeded Oak Park-River Forest to 32nd-seeded Aurora East.

Even though Mount Carmel was the spoiler against Loyola in the regular season finale the defending state champions had to settle for a No. 8 seed. By virtue of their bye the Caravan will have a home game when they clash with the winner of opening round game that has 25th-seeded Marist hosting 40th-seeded Nequa Valley.

The state championship games in all eight classes will be played at Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium on Thanksgiving weekend.

Regular-Season Finale

The Caravan on Friday continued their recent domination of Loyola with a compelling 38-21 conquest of the previously undefeated Ramblers in the final game of the regular season on Friday night at Hoerster Field.

In 2025, Mount Carmel defeated the Ramblers 35-31 in the regular season finale and 21-17 in the first round of the playoffs, ending Loyola’s quest for a fourth straight 8A title and leaving them with an out-of-character 4-5 record.

Friday’s outcome produced a three-way deadlock atop the Chicago Catholic League Blue Division. Loyola, Mount Carmel and Brother Rice all wound up with CCL Blue records of 2-1. In September, the Ramblers edged Brother Rice and the Crusaders defeated the Caravan.

Going into the weekend, the Ramblers were ranked second in the metropolitan area by the Chicago Tribune, Brother Rice was third and Mount Carmel was fourth.

“The real season starts now,” said Loyola coach John Holecek referring to the state tournament playoffs. “The goal at the beginning of the season was to get the bye week (under the new format) and have a chance. (Now) we have a chance.

“Mount Carmel is a heck of a team. They played a great game. Their (exceptional) speed was on display tonight and our secondary made some wrong reads.”

Speaking to his players, Holecek said: “Understand how hard and how well you have to play. You didn’t do your best and your coaches didn’t do their best (tonight).

“This can be good for us if we understand what we did wrong. Hopefully, it will go the other way if we see them again in the playoffs.”

“Obviously we wanted to be undefeated but after last year I can’t be mad at 8-1 going into the playoffs,” said junior defensive back Robert Simmons, a two-year starter. “Better tonight than in the playoffs. This loss keeps us humble. All we can do is be more critical of ourselves and learn from it.”

Flaunting its speed and diversified attack, Mount Carmel (7-2) became dominant late in the first quarter and stayed in command the remainder of the game.

“We came out tonight and we knew we had to put it all on the line,” said Roman Igwebuike, the Caravan’s senior linebacker and captain.

“They’re a solid team (and) obviously we underestimated them,” Loyola senior wide receiver Joe Haughey said. “Sometimes you learn more from a loss than a win. I think this could be a blessing in disguise for us going into the playoffs.”

Junior linebacker Barrett Schifferdecker has the same mindset.

“We’re using this as fuel,” he said. “This is hard for us, but we’ll move forward. We’re not taking anyone lightly and we now know what it takes to beat a team of the caliber we just played.”

Game Action

Loyola kicked off to start the game and it produced a touchback, putting the football on the 20-yard line. After the Caravan advanced to its 39. Coach Jordan Lynch gambled on a fourth-and-3 situation and it backfired when Schiffferdecker broke up Brady Cloherty’s pass.

Six plays later Jordan McKinley scored the night’s first touchdown on a 26-yard pass to the end zone from fellow junior Matthew Lee that was followed by Ryan Edwards’ extra point kick.

Mount Carmel then drove 80 yards to tie the score with 97 seconds to play in the quarter. The touchdown came on Cloherty’s 34-yard pass to Quentin Burrell in the end zone and Ryan Scanlan kicked the extra point.

Early in the second quarter the Caravan took command when Cloherty and Duran Sims collaborated on a 69-yard pass play for a touchdown.

Scanlan added the extra point and kicked a 39-yard field goal with under two minutes to play in the quarter, putting Mount Carmel on top by 10 points.

Junior linebacker Will Mettee’s interception and return to the Mount Carmel 21 with 66 seconds left in the quarter set up Lee’s 19-yard pass to McKinley in the end zone and the extra-point by Edwards reduced the Loyola deficit to 17-14 at the half.

In the third quarter a 1-yard run by Nathan Samuels and a 13-yard pass from Cloherty to Sims produced the touchdowns that put the Ramblers down 31-14.

At the start of the fourth quarter led by Lee’s passing and McKinley’s receiving, the Ramblers drove from their own 42 to the Caravan 1-yard line but Melo Maldonado was stopped on a fourth down run.

On Mount Carmel’s first play following the goal line stand Cloherty found Marshaun Thornton in the clear along the right sideline and the wide receiver took the pass 99 yards to the end zone, dispelling any hopes that the Ramblers’ fans had of witnessing a miraculous rally.

With 59 seconds on the clock, on fourth down the Ramblers’ senior substitute running back Finn Belmont broke away to score his first career touchdown on a 56-yard run.

On offense, Cloherty’s 19-for-33 passing for 382 yards was the main factor in Mount Carmel’s decisive victory. In addition to throwing to Sims for a pair of TDs and to Burrell and Thornton for one apiece, he connected with Ty Kennedy eight times for 118 yards.

The running of Samuels also created intermittent problems for the Loyola defense.

Meanwhile, the Caravan stymied the Ramblers’ dynamic junior running back Maldonado for the entire game.

Lee completed 13 of his 24 passes for 177 yards, but McKinley was the only receiver making waves.

Senior tight end Charlie Fowler, who was a high impact receiver early in the season, returned to the field against Mount Carmel but was unable to replicate his earlier success.

“He’ll improve when the rust wears off, Holecek said, “and we’re also going to get some more help in the playoffs when wide receiver Brendan Fitzgerald (a highly regarded senior who was on the injured list for the entire regular season) comes back.”

Ramblers Refresher

Loyola’s all-time leader in victories, Holecek retired as the Ramblers’ head coach after winning the 2022 Class 8A state championships, leaving behind players who proved to be the foundation for the state championship seasons the next two years under his successor and former assistant Beau Desherow.

In 2024 Holecek ended his short-lived retirement to serve as an assistant coach for two years before becoming the head coach for the second time this year.

Desherow, meanwhile, went back to his old job as an assistant coach and assumed an additional role as the team’s general manager.

“We were able to creatively figure out a way to keep two great leaders in the program and just sort of reposition people into different roles with many overlapping responsibilities,” said Genevieve Atwood, Loyola’s vice-president for athletics Genevieve Atwood and mother of the team’s stellar linebacker Mark Atwood.

Just as Holecek laid the foundation for Desherow’s success in 2023 and 2024, last season Desherow did the groundwork during last year’s 4-5 season that has enabled Holecek to make an auspicious return.

The three biggest offensive weapons this season—Lee, McKinley and Maldonado—all gained extensive experience when they were sophomore starters in 2025 and several other players who were then juniors (the most notable of whom are Mettee, Haughey and Atwood) also are playing high profile roles for the second straight season.

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