Loyola overcomes adversity, comes back to beat Marist 28-17

CHICAGO — Loyola faced something for the first time this season on Friday: a first-quarter deficit.

The Ramblers outscored their opponents 90-0 in the first quarter through five games but they trailed Marist 7-0 after the first quarter on the road. Loyola faced its first adversity of the season and responded by playing its best game, coming back to win 28-17.

“I love the fact that we fought back after a seven-point deficit because that was the first time,” Loyola coach John Holecek said. “We don’t know are we going to trust each other, are we going to start pointing fingers, do we trust the schemes, do our playmakers make good plays, do our stars play well? Yeah they did, and some other guys stepped up to do things. Overall, a great team win.”

Loyola’s (6-0, 2-0 CCL/ESCC Blue) first offensive drive produced 47 yards to the Marist 33, but the RedHawks forced a stop on fourth down. Marist drove down the field itself on its first possession thanks to a 31-yard completion from Dermot Smyth to John Nestor and ended when Smyth found Ryan Sims for a nine-yard pass to make it 7-0 Marist with 2:38 left in the first quarter.

The Ramblers offense regrouped and scored on fourth down on Marist’s 3 when quarterback Jake Stearney completed a three-yard pass to Jack Fitzgerald to tie the game with 7:40 left in the second quarter. Loyola took its first lead when Stearney completed a nine-yard pass to Spencer Leadbetter with 37.8 seconds left in the second quarter.

Marist tied the game at 14 when Marc Coy rushed in for a one-yard touchdown with 9:39 left in the third quarter but Loyola got going in the second half, scoring on a 23-yard pass from Stearney to Will Nimesheim with 7:04 left in the third quarter and again 52-yard pass from Stearney to Declan Forde to make it 28-17 with 7:07 left in the game.

Stearney completed 16 of his 22 passes for 190 yards and four touchdowns while Nimesheim rushed for 132 yards. Forde finished with 79 receiving yards.

“That’s the thing about football: you have to adjust constantly,” Stearney said. “We were a great second-half team today and it showed in the adjustments we made.”

Marist made a 33-yard field goal with with 3:42 left in the third quarter to make it a 21-17 Loyola lead but the Ramblers defense picked up stops to put the game away. The RedHawks drove to the Ramblers 26 but Brooks Bahr picked up a sack to force a turnover on downs. Ty Ottoson and Johnny McGuire each intercepted a pass to end the next two Marist drives and put the game away.

“We knew we had to step it up,” Bahr said. “Our offense was stepping up for us so we knew we had to do our job to get out there. We made a couple plays to seal up the game.”

Smyth completed 20 of his 33 passes for 261 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Sims finished the day with 100 receiving yards and one touchdown.

Marist (3-3, 0-2 CCL/ESCC Blue) was proud of the way it competed against one of the state’s best teams. After losing to Mount Carmel 42-7 in Week 4, the RedHawks worked hard to make improvements.

“We had that really bad loss to Mount Carmel a couple weeks ago, so we’ve been emphasizing the little things these last two weeks,” Sims said. “I feel like we’ve been getting better, but we still need to fix the little stuff. The little things show up on the scoreboard and we came up short today.”

Marist will travel to Montini on Friday, Oct. 7, while Loyola will travel to Providence on Friday.

While the Ramblers had enjoyed their five large-margin wins heading into Friday, they were proud to play in a close game. It showed Loyola that it can overcome adversity.

“It’s really important to have games like these,” Bahr said. “It’s going to show how high of a character of a team we are and how we need to be battle-tested.”