Loyola grinds out third consecutive IHSA Class 8A title by toppling York

NORMAL – Loyola entered the final game of the IHSA football season hoping to claim its third consecutive state championship and as a heavy favorite to do so.

The Ramblers got it with a 35-14 Class 8A title game win on Saturday night at Illinois State University, but York made them work for it.

Loyola (12-2) didn’t gain more than a touchdown advantage in the contest until midway through the third quarter when Gavin Vradenburg made a spectacular 6-yard touchdown reception.

And even then York, playing in its first championship game, continued to try to keep itself in the game. But after piling up 270 yards of total offense in the first half the Dukes (11-3) couldn’t sustain offense long enough to keep Loyola’s clock-chewing, yardage grabbing offense off the field. Loyola then seized control of yet another postseason game in the second half of a close contest.

“We made some adjustments in the second half,” Loyola coach Beau Desherow said. “We knew going into this that they were obviously a dynamic team. With the adjustments we were just making sure we were doing our jobs. We were close on a couple of those big runs and we were just having to close that gap.”

Loyola, who had less yardage than York at halftime, ended up with 21 first downs and thoroughly dominated time of possession in the second half. The Ramblers officially iced the game with a 4-yard touchdown run from Drew MacPherson early in the fourth quarter.

“Loyola has such a great history and legacy,” MacPherson said. “And I think we just try to continue that every day. It really comes down to the coaching staff. I think we have one of the best coaching staffs in the country, if not the best. And they just really hammered into us every day. It’s really about the mindset and we really just get it done.”

Jimmy Conners found an early break in the Loyola defense and scampered 74 yards for a score to give York an early 7-0 lead; but Loyola didn’t take much time to counter with a Ryan Fitzgerald pass to Will Carlson from 18 yards out that tied things at 7-all.

Loyola pushed ahead with a 12-yard touchdown run from MacPherson at the 8:40 mark of the second quarter, but York, using a heavily productive running game managed to come right back and answer that score with a 1-yard touchdown run from Bruno Massel.

York’s success in the first half hinged heavily on in its ability to run the football against a Loyola defensive front that had been extremely stingy giving up gains on the ground to most of its previous opponents. In its 13 games entering the final, Loyola had allowed a little more than an average of 100 yards per game.

In the contest’s first 20 minutes, Massel alone had run for 126 yards and the Dukes as a whole passed 200 yards rushing as a team midway through the second quarter.

But while York was having success running the football, they weren’t able to figure out how to hem in MacPherson, who had 115 yards of total offense including a 16-yard touchdown reception from Fitzgerald that gave Loyola a 21-14 lead at halftime.

York obviously wasn’t happy with the final result but for Dukes head coach Don Gelsomino it was more about the journey to get to the state final than what ultimately happened there.

“When these kids were freshmen, we were on a 10-year playoff drought and they are leaving having played in the 8A state title game,” Gelsomino said. “What they did and the couple of classes before them did for this program and for what you saw in the stands for this community, it is something that a lot of people are going to remember and hopefully we’re not done yet.”

For Loyola the win brought things full circle. The Ramblers lost their season opening contest against East St. Louis also on the playing surface at Illinois State University, but the Loyola team that showed up on Saturday scarcely resembled that team from back in August.

“You know with the way we started the year, they kept their faith and their trust in the process. And they played for each other and we accomplished our goal,” Desherow said.