Maldonado’s highlight-reel plays help Loyola discard St. Rita

Juniors Matthew Lee, Melo Maldonado and Jordan McKinley were in the forefront Friday night when undefeated Loyola Academy scored touchdowns in its first four possessions and coasted to a 31-0 victory over St. Rita in the Ramblers’ home opener Friday night at Hoerster Field.

Maldonado ran 10 yards for the first touchdown in the first quarter, then caught passes from Lee and flaunted his speed and elusiveness in breaking away for TD trips of 43 yards later in the first quarter and 80 yards in the second quarter.

“We always knew Melo could be a receiving threat and he showed it in this game,” Lee said after the one-sided victory that saw the Ramblers’ offense look spectacular in the first half. “Melo played a great game.”

“Jordan McKinley and (senior) Joe Haughey made great blocks after I caught those passes in the flat, and that enabled me to go all the way (to the end zone),” said Maldonado, who also contributed 41 rushing yards in five carries. The touchdown run was his third of the young season.

With fellow junior Jayden Garrett, who shares the running back role, sidelined because of a high ankle sprain sustained in the previous weekend’s triumph against Cathedral in Indianapolis, McKinley felt it was significant that Maldonado made waves as a pass-catcher.

“He worked on it a little bit more at practice this week,” McKinley pointed out.

The other touchdown against St. Rita came on Lee’s 4-yard pass to Haughey at the start of the second quarter.

Senior wide tight end Charlie Fowler’s fourth catch of the game — a 40-yarder that put the ball on the 4 — set up Haughey’s end-zone reception. Fowler was injured in making the prefacing play and was sidelined for the rest of the contest.

Lee wound up with 17 completions in 21 attempts for 279 yards, and McKinley had seven catches to account for 93 of the yards.

Senior Ryan Edwards continued to make an impact with his kicking. He added all four extra points and kicked a 23-yard field goal to conclude the scoring with 25 seconds to play in the first half. And his kickoffs to the end zone produced touchbacks that prevented the Mustangs from getting good field position.

The shutout was the second of the season for the Ramblers (3-0), who are ranked fifth in the metropolitan area by the Chicago Tribune.

St. Rita (1-2) was the IHSA Class 7A runnerup last season and went into the Loyola game ranked 18th in the metropolitan area following its 36-35 victory over Glenbard West the previous week.

The dynamic offense that the Mustangs showed against Glenbard West was shut down by the Loyola defense.

“They’re a physical team that plays hard but our whole plan was to be more physical than they were,” said senior linebacker Barrett Schifferdecker.

“I was very happy with our defense,” said coach John Holecek.

“On offense (junior) left tackle Brock Thompson was the leader and all of our offensive linemen played well.

“They had a long bus ride from the South Side to get here and their air-conditioning on the bus broke down. I knew if we jumped on them right away they’d go downhill fast.”

But in the second half Holecek saw lapses that concerned him.

“It wasn’t a very clean game from my perspective,” he said. “There were things all over the place we can get better at. And we need to get better by next week.”

The Ramblers will be back in the friendly confines of Hoerster Field for a 6:30 p.m. game on Friday, Sept. 11, against traditional arch-rival Brother Rice, which had a 13-1 record last season en route to the Class 7A championship and is 2-1 this season.

After losing their opener 22-21 at top-ranked Lincoln-Way East the second-ranked Crusaders walloped Woodlawn 69-0 and St. Francis 43-0.

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