Neither Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch nor St. Rita coach Todd Kuska think there is much that needs to be said about their teams’ game on Saturday.

The Caravan and Mustangs will meet for the 101st time in program history in the Class 7A semifinals for a chance to compete for a state title.

“It’s great,” Lynch said. “Anytime St. Rita, Mount Carmel get to play each other, it’s great for everyone. It’s a great rivalry, it’s a great tradition.”

Mount Carmel (12-0) advanced to the semifinals after it took down CCL/ESCC Blue rival Brother Rice 48-12, while St. Rita (10-2) defeated St. Charles North in the quarterfinals 28-7.

The two opened the regular season with their 100th overall meeting where Mount Carmel quarterback Blainey Dowling threw five touchdown passes and the Caravan beat the Mustangs 35-3. Since that matchup, both teams have combined to go 21-1, with the lone loss being St. Rita’s 34-14 loss to Loyola.

But both coaches know that the other team is different from the opponent they opened the year against.

“They’re probably the most-improved team in the entire state from what I saw (Saturday) and playing the last couple weeks on TV,” Lynch said. “Coach Kuska does a great job and those guys are running the crap out of the ball and playing great defense.”

The Mustangs are coming off of what Kuska called their most-complete game of the season. St. Rita’s defense knocked out St. Charles North and the special teams blocked four kicks.

Kuska thought his team benefited from losing to Mount Carmel and Loyola in the first three weeks of the season. The Mustangs learned what they needed to do to win games and have found themselves in a groove in all three phases.

“I think we’re night-and-day different,” Kuska said. “We were an inexperienced group not knowing what to expect anything from that point and I think now we’ve grown into a team, we know who we are, we know our identity and we thrive off that.”

Both teams will try to use their opening matchup as a base for how they prepare for Saturday’s game. The Mustangs defense has allowed an average of 14 points per game in the postseason against Geneva, Prospect and St. Charles North while the Caravan offense has averaged 40.3 points per game in the playoffs against Buffalo Grove, Downers Grove North and Brother Rice.

St. Rita will try to go to its third straight state title game while Mount Carmel will try to return to the championship game for the first time since winning the 7A title in 2019.

Not much more needs to be said.

“It’s the rivalry game of rivalry games and it’s a semifinal, it’s a chance to go down to state,” Kuska said. “We’ve always talked about one week at a time, but this is it, we can’t get a chance to achieve our goals if we don’t take care of this. I don’t think much needs to be said. It’s Rita-Mount Carmel, state semis. That’s all you need to say.”

Wolfpack regroup to win first-ever quarterfinal

St. Ignatius’ first-ever quarterfinal appearance didn’t start the way it wanted Saturday.

The Wolfpack thought they could’ve been up 14-0 instead of 3-0 after their first two possessions in their Class 6A matchup against Niles Notre Dame, but St. Ignatius didn’t let adversity affect its plays. St. Ignatius went on to win 31-6, advancing to the program’s first semifinal appearance.

“They never thought about it again,” St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller said. “It’s a good thing. The kids were like those are the circumstances and we’ll keep playing.”

The Wolfpack drove to the red zone on their first possession and thought they scored but a fumble in the end zone was not ruled a touchdown before St. Ignatius lost the ball and Niles Notre Dame took over. St. Ignatius got near the end zone again on its next possession but settled for a field goal.

Running back Vinny Rugai led the way with 215 rushing yards and three touchdowns as the offense continued its dominant postseason. The Wolfpack have averaged 42.7 points per game.

“We’re just constantly moving forward, that’s the mantra of the offense,” Miller said. “Even when things aren’t perfect, we’re still picking up three, four, five yards. That’s a testament to the players we have and the coaches putting them in the position to be ready for anything.”

St. Ignatius will see a near carbon copy of its team when it plays at Prairie Ridge on Saturday. The Wolves also run the triple-option and are led by quarterback Tyler Vasey, who ran for 481 yards and eight touchdowns in Saturday’s 69-28 victory over Harlem. That yardage gave him the state record for rushing yards in a season, which sits at 3,609 heading into Saturday’s semifinal game against St. Ignatius.

Miller knows the way for the Wolfpack to reach their first state-title game is to play fundamental football by making tackles. He’s been preaching that a state title is attainable for the Wolfpack program since the beginning of the season.

“Just changing the mindset that this is an expectation and that it’s possible, people have done it before me is what we’ve been trying to do,” Miller said. “Getting there legitimizes that early season goal.”

Ramblers rushing attack progresses

Loyola has adjusted to life without lead running back Will Nimesheim well in its last two games since a knee injury ended the junior’s season.

The Ramblers won both of their games and ran the ball effectively to complement quarterback Jake Stearney and the passing game.

“Nothing really has changed,” Stearney said. “It sucks that Will got injured, we miss him greatly, but it’s next man up.”

Sophomore Luke Foster led the team with 57 rushing yards on 20 touches in the Ramblers’ 30-17 win over Lyons on Saturday while Stearney added 38. Ryan Craddock had 20 yards on five touches while Johnny McGuire came in for two rushes for 6 yards.

Loyola coach John Holecek thought Foster was a little slow but did what he needed to do and that Craddock played tough. Holecek said he wants to use McGuire, a 220-pound defensive back more in the coming weeks.

While the Ramblers wish they would have their lead back healthy, they’ve enjoyed watching the energy the new rushers have brought to the team.

“It’s kind of cool to see all the energy surrounding them, kind of supporting them throughout this whole running back issue,” Stearney said. “Expect nothing different, the running game is still there as it’s shown.”

Celtics continue to believe

Providence had shown it was close to taking its next step as a team after its losses to Joliet Catholic, Loyola and St. Rita during the regular season.

The Celitcs kept coming just short of taking down some of the best teams in the state, but in the playoffs, things came together. Providence beat conference rival Joliet Catholic in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs and took down No. 1 Richmond-Burton in the quarterfinals.

The team has bought into what first-year coach Tyler Plantz has sold them to continue to believe and now it’s paying off.

“The constant selling point has been believe,” Plantz said as he was wearing a shirt that said “believe.” “We figured out a way at critical points to lose. A lot of it was immaturity. We continued working, studying and growing as players. It’s exciting stuff.”

Quedenfeld encouraged after first year with Crusaders

Brother Rice coach Casey Quedenfeld found the positives after his team’s loss to Mount Carmel in the 7A quarterfinals Saturday.

“Just getting the experience of being here helps a lot,” Quedenfeld said. “Whether it’s motivation or now we know how to handle ourselves throughout an entire season, I think it’s really good for the kids.”

Quedenfeld ended his first season as the Crusaders coach with a 7-5 overall record, 0-3 in the CCL/ESCC Blue. He took over a team with a lot of new players from last season’s team that lost in the semifinals and continued to see growth throughout the year.

The first year as a new coach is always the hardest in Quedenfeld’s eyes and he’s proud of what the Crusaders accomplished this season.

“I’m really proud of the guys for accepting me, accepting some of the new coaches, accepting some of the schematic changes, all of that stuff,” Quedenfeld said. “As far as that is concerned, that has been a success. It takes time to get some of the wins going.”

CCL/ESCC’s perfect weekend

CCL/ESCC teams won all the games they could in the quarterfinal round. Loyola, Mount Carmel, St. Rita, St. Ignatius, Nazareth and Providence all won their games while Brother Rice and Niles Notre Dame both lost to CCL/ESCC opponents.

This season’s six semifinal teams matches last season’s six and is one more than the 2019 playoffs.

A maximum of five teams can advance to state title games in Champaign since Mount Carmel and St. Rita will play each other in the Class 7A semifinals.

All-state awards announced

Numerous CCL/ESCC players earned all-state honors from the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association.

Loyola’s Jake Stearney and Marist’s John Nestor earned all-state honors in Class 8A while St. Rita’s Matt Kingsbury was named to the Class 7A team. Justin Scott and Vinny Rugai were the first St. Ignatius players in program history to be named all-state in Class 6A and Marmion Academy’s Jack Lesher and Benet’s Pierce Walsh both earned honors in Class 5A. Anthony Birsa was named to the Class 4A team for Joliet Catholic.

Marist’s Jamel Howard, St. Rita’s Nick Strelczyk, Fenwick’s Joep Engbers and Nathaniel Marshall, Marmion’s Ivan Erickson and St. Viator’s Michael Nix all earned all-state honorable mention honors.

• Joe Stevenson contributed to this report.