Nearly a year to the day after knocking off Loyola, St. Francis went looking for another signature victory on Friday night in Wheaton.

The Ramblers shook off last season’s Week 3 defeat to the Spartans, reeling off 11 wins in a row to capture the program’s third consecutive Class 8A state championship.

The Spartans opened the game with some momentum, scoring a touchdown on their second drive.

But the Ramblers seized control of the game, capitalizing on fourth down conversions, several dropped passes by the Spartans on long passes, while scoring on all four of their first-half possessions to record a 43-21 victory at Kuhn Memorial Stadium.

“You have to make those plays when you play a team like Loyola,” St. Francis coach Bob McMillen said. “We had too many errors early and when you play a team like Loyola and have those mistakes, they will beat us. We didn’t play our football game and have a lot of things to clean up. I’m proud of the boys for continuing to fight.”

The Spartans (2-1) couldn’t build off the positive home vibes from their second drive, when senior quarterback Brock Phillip scored on a 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Phillip had an uneven performance, partly because of Loyola’s defense. He threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions, with both TDs coming in the final 14-plus minutes when the game was all but decided.

“We just had a lot of mistakes and it just killed us,” Phillip said. “We have to stay consistent and be ourselves. We had a lot of good, but just too many mistakes.”

The Ramblers (2-0) had too many weapons and an abundance of next-level talent, overwhelming the Spartans with playmakers to grab a 22-7 lead at halftime. Sophomore quarterback Matthew Lee directed the Ramblers’ offense to three straight touchdowns to start the game, tossing a 36-yard TD pass to Robert Clingan on a blown assignment by the Spartans.

Loyola sophomore Jordan McKinley, who has offers from Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa State, scored the next two touchdowns via the Wildcat. At 6-foot-3 and 219 pounds, McKinley possesses the size of a tight end but the speed of a wide receiver – 4.62 40-yard dash. He scored on TD runs of 11 and 8 yards and caught two touchdowns. McKinley hauled in four receptions for 78 yards.

“It was a great game and we prepped all week for this team knowing they beat us last year,” McKinley said. “We came out with a strong mindset and talked all week about coming out hot. We didn’t come out hot last year and looked what happened.”

Lee, a promising recruit, spread the field out by hitting multitude of targets. He passed for 152 yards and three touchdowns, and running back Melo Maldonado ran for 88 yards.

In the first half, the Spartans’ offense committed a host of mistakes that derailed a promising start, mainly due to several dropped passes – two of which were sure-fire TDs – bad field position, incompletions and two sacks and an interception by the Ramblers defense.

Loyola senior running back Cody Reilly broke the game open early in the third quarter, busting through the line and racing 77 yards for a touchdown to pad the lead to 29-7. The Spartans showed some fight, scoring on the ensuing drive. Phillip closed out a long drive by drilling an 18-yard TD pass to junior James McGrath to slice the deficit to 29-13 with 2:47 left in the third quarter.

McKinley got back into the act by showing his offensive diversity, notching his third touchdown of the game. This time, McKinley added a TD via the air on a 43-yard catch to push the lead to 36-13 with 7:24 remaining in the game.

“We did a good job on offense and the defense did their job,” McKinley said.