The Football Hotsheet: Weekend Bites
After Week 3 in Chicagoland prep football, what teams moved up and down?
(Photo Credit: Loyola Academy)
John Holecek didn’t understand all of the preseason hype about his Loyola Academy Ramblers football team.
A few national polls had the Ramblers ensconced in their usual position — amongst the aristocrats in the state of Illinois.
But nine new projected starters on defense had him downplaying the hype and believing the lofty rankings based solely on reputation and not worthy of his fall 2021 team.
“Two years ago we had zero returning starters on defense so at least we have two this year. It’s not brand new but we have so much limited experience,” Holecek, the Ramblers head coach, said in August. “We had no Week 2 game because everyone thinks we’re as good as last year.”
The Ramblers got their Week 2 game, a 56-7 clobbering of an overmatched Rochester team.
Saturday, on a warm, windy afternoon at John Hoerster Field in Wilmette, it appeared Loyola would face its stiffest test to date. St. Rita rolled into town, a Chicago Catholic League Blue Division rival ranked in the top 10 in most Illinois polls and in Week 2 defeated Trinity, a high school in Louisville, Kentucky and considered one that state’s elite.
It took the better part of two quarters, but Loyola eventually overwhelmed the Mustangs by the final score of 37-7. The blowout boosts the Ramblers average margin of victory to 35.6 over the season’s first three games.
The St. Rita result proves that Loyola’s version of rebuilding its roster is unlike most. It may not play a perfect game (there were plenty of mistakes committed against the Mustangs) but with a varsity roster of 121 (the paper roster is four pages), there are always options for Loyola at perceived positional deficiencies, a luxury most other programs do not share.
One position the Ramblers are set on and appear to be for the next two seasons is at quarterback.
Consider the St. Rita game the coming out party for junior Jake Stearney.
Stearney played like a poised veteran, carving up the Mustangs for 301 yards through the air on 20 completions. One of his two touchdown passes was arguably the game’s most critical play, coming right at the start of the third quarter.
All game long, St. Rita played the backside of their defense close to the line of scrimmage (“high-risk, high-reward,” said Holecek). This aggressive style left them susceptible to play action and run-pass option plays. On the first play of the third quarter, Loyola had the ball on its own 20-yard line.
Offensive coordinator Tyler Vrandenburg told Stearney to read the Mustangs safety on the run-pass option call.
“Once (the safety) came down, he’s the seventh guy (in the box),” Vrandenburg said. “We have six to block six. He’s the seventh guy so if we can’t block him, it’s a five-step post.”
That’s exactly what Stearney read. After the snap and play fake to running back Marco Maldonado, he fired a strike to senior wide receiver Danny Collins, lined up on the left side of the formation. Collins caught the pass in stride and with no free safety deep, had nothing but open turf in front of him and easily scored an 80-yard touchdown (Collins finished with 143 yards receiving on the day).
The score made it 23-7 Ramblers. They added two scores and basically ran out the clock the rest of the way. On a hot afternoon (the second half didn’t begin until 3 pm) and the Mustangs having several players going both ways, it would have taken a mountain of self-inflicted errors by the Ramblers for the game to swing back in St. Rita’s favor.
Loyola's newly constructed defense kept the Mustangs to 27 yards of total rushing offense. Ramblers junior linebacker James Kruetz said the Ramblers knew they had to stop the run in order to neutralize the Mustangs attack.
“On film we knew they were a run-heavy team. Their best player was out (Kaleb Brown) but we knew we had to stop the run,” Kruetz said.
(Photo Credit: Loyola Academy)
Kruetz was everywhere Saturday, making plays in the backfield and not missing tackles in the open field.
“You can’t believe how ferocious he plays. He wants to bury everyone,” Holecek said.
But Loyola’s success the rest of the season and in the state playoffs will largely rise on the arm and legs of the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Stearney. Loyola has had excellent quarterback play over its decade of dominance (Emmett Clifford, Jack Penn) but Stearney may turn out to be the best of all of them.
(Photo Credit: Loyola Academy)
Saturday, he played like a college-level quarterback in only is third career start.
“He’s going to keep improving. He’s a Division 1 quarterback we will have for two years,” Holecek said.
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Lake Forest and Stevenson High Schools are long time North Suburban Conference rivals dating back to when the Patriots first started playing football as a new high school in 1965.
The series went back and forth for decades. But from 2000-2017, the Patriots were 17-1 against the Scouts.
But things have changed since 2018.
Friday night at Lake Forest’s Varsity Field, Lake Forest won its fourth straight against Stevenson, winning 42-17 while boosting its record to 2-1 in the season.
Football games almost always consist of more than 100 plays. But one play can change the outcome more than others. That happened Friday night.
With Lake Forest holding on to a precarious 21-17 lead midway through the third quarter, the Patriots stopped the Scouts on downs and took over on their own 21- yard line. Stevenson quarterback Matt Projansky threw a pass to running back Jordan Skolmar, who broke a few tackles and ran into the open field. It looked as through Skolmar would score the go-ahead touchdown and flipping what had been a 21-7 deficit for the Patriots.
But Lake Forest senior safety Jake Milliman raced toward the sideline with the proper angle on Skolmar. Milliman caught up to Skolmar, went low and managed to get the running back to step out of bounds in the Scouts’ red zone (Skolmar finished the run in the end zone. Everyone watching the play thought he had scored a touchdown until the referee blew the play dead out of bounds).
On the next offensive play, the Scouts forced a fumble and recovered, regaining possession.
One play, one game-changer.
“I wanted to pursue him as much as possible,” Milliman said. “I wasn’t going to let him score. I wanted to hit him low and at an angle. He was not going to get in the end zone.”
The Scouts went on to score a touchdown on the ensuing drive after the fumble recovery. Two of them were on runs by senior quarterback Leo Scheidler, whom like Loyola’s Stearney, had his own coming out party Friday night.
In his first year as a starter, the 6-1, 175-pound Scheidler is a dual-threat quarterback in every sense of the definition. Lake Forest runs a spread-based attack that is much more effective with a quarterback who can not just scramble when pass plays fall apart but can gain yardage on designed runs. Friday night, Scheidler ran it three times for touchdowns (one a 32-yarder that made it 21-7 in the second quarter) and threw for a 59-yard score to senior wideout Cade Nowik, also in the second quarter.
Scheidler accounted for four of the Scouts six touchdowns (senior running back Jahari Scott ran in the other two) and played with the purpose and clarity of someone deeply invested in his team and program.
“We had 11 guys on both offense and defense both pouring their hearts out for a win and we needed it after last week (a 26-14 loss to Carmel),” Scheidler said, both shins covered with ice bags after the game. “We had to focus on the little things.”
“(Scheidler) is an athletic kid and does a really good job of not putting us in bad situations,” Scouts coach Chuck Spagnoli said. “He really is a great competitor.”
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So much happened this past weekend with prep football around Chicagoland. The proper adjustments have been made to The Tenacious 12 to reflect results from Friday and Saturday.
Here we go, with Week 3 in the books, the Hotsheet Tenacious 12 rankings (including current postseason class):
MAINE SOUTH (8A): The Hawks remain unbeaten after a 47-14 win over Fremd. There were moments of drama for Maine South, as special teams plays kept the Vikings hanging around in the first half. But the Hawks scored 33 unanswered in cruising to its third win of the fall 2021 season.
LOYOLA ACADEMY (7A): The Ramblers continue to ramble and roll. So far, they are classified in 7A but plan to petition the Illinois High School Association to bump back up to 8A. The higher class is where they belong. If they remain in 7A it will be a stacked postseason field with more obstacles in the state series than if they get inserted into 8A.
BATAVIA (7A): The Bulldogs rise up the rankings after a not-all-that-surprising 23-17 overtime win over Wheaton North. Jalen Buckley, Batavia’s uber-talented running back, scored the game-winner in OT and finished with 193 yards on the ground. Batavia gets a hugely important first win in the DuKane Conference race, arguably the most stacked in Chicagoland.
HERSEY (7A): The Huskies have yet to be tested with a third of the regular season completed. Hersey’s 63-0 pasting of Maine East saw quarterback Jimmy Mukah throw for four touchdowns and the Huskies defense keep Maine East to 49 total yards on offense.
WHEATON NORTH (7A): There is no reason to be that concerned about the Falcons, even after their overtime loss to Batavia. Wheaton North did blow a 17-7 lead but did so against a quality opponent used to winning big games. How the Falcons bounce back after the loss will be more of an indicator of just how good this Falcons team is. They host St. Charles North Friday in Week 4.
ST. CHARLES NORTH (7A): What a Week 3 in the DuKane Conference. Four teams capable of making deep postseason runs all squared off on the same night. The Chargers dropped their first game of the Fall 2021 season in nail-biting fashion, 12-10 to Wheaton-Warrenville South. St. Charles North remains a contender in the DuKane but will have to get road win Friday at Wheaton North.
WHEATON-WARRENVILLE SOUTH (7A): Along with Batavia, the Tigers make the biggest leap in the T12, three spots, after beating St. Charles North Friday night. The Tigers showed character in driving the length of the field to set up their game-winning 29-yard field goal Friday night. Up next is a road date at Geneva.
WARREN (8A): An easy bounce back win for the Blue Devils in crushing Zion-Benton 56-0 in Week 3. Warren got its passing game going against the Zee-Bees as quarterback Aiden Lucero, who struggled in a Week 2 loss to Maine South, threw for four touchdowns. A road trip to Lake Zurich is next in Week 4.
BUFFALO GROVE (7A): The schedule has been kind to the Bison to start the Fall 2021 campaign, and all the Bison have done is gone out and beaten everyone. Week 3’s 42-6 pasting of Maine West means the Bison have now scored 40-plus each week thus far. Niles North is up next.
LIBERTYVILLE (7A): One of the Wildcats three wins this season is a forfeit (Week 1 vs. Carmel) but in the two games Libertyville has faced competition, they’ve shown to be a team maturing very quickly. The Wildcats beat Lake Zurich in Week 2 largely in part again due to the play of running back Tommy Latka, who rushed for 143 yards against the Bears.
CARMEL CATHOLIC (7A): The Corsairs moved to 2-1 on the season after a 35-32 win over Chicago Leo. Carmel held on to their slim margin in the second half after a 21-20 halftime lead. Long time rival St. Viator is next in Week 4.
BARRINGTON (8A): Barrington nabs the final spot in the T12 following a 28-23 win over New Trier in Week 3. First-year quarterback Harley Thompson scored the Broncos final touchdown in the fourth quarter and Barrington closed out the Trevians. Barrington hosts Glenbrook South in Week 4.
Suggestions for a Tenacious 12 team? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.