Loyola makes its case for best in state, wins CCL/ESCC Blue

Ramblers RB Vaughn Pemberton scores 5 touchdowns

CHICAGO – Vaughn Pemberton’s best play of the night was one he didn’t score on. That’s saying something because he scored five times in Friday’s 43-14 win at Marist.

With a one-possession game late in the third quarter, Loyola faced a third-and-30 at the 31-yard line. The Ramblers needed to reach the 1-yard line. Quarterback JT Thomas dumped off a short pass to Pemberton, who evaded tacklers and tight-roped his way to a first down at the 1.

Pemberton scored one of his five rushing touchdown on a 1-yard run the next play.

“I mean, it’s third-and-long and you can hand the ball off,” Loyola coach John Holecek said. “It’s ridiculous. It makes a coach really, really good. That’s what Vaughn Pemberton does.”

The score put Loyola up by two touchdowns, and the Ramblers broke it open with two more scores in the fourth quarter. Pemberton was the star of the box score (222 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 22 carries; two catches for 45 yards), but Friday’s win over Marist was about more than the stats.

Loyola (6-0, 3-0 CCL/ESCC Blue) locked up the CCL/ESCC blue division title, arguably the best conference in the state. This Ramblers team, which entered the season with 16 returning starters, is going to be wondering, “What if?” for a long time after the spring 2021 season. The circumstances, of course, were out of their control. But this was a team loaded with experience and poised for a deep playoff run.

Holecek had a talk this week with John O’Loughlin, a teacher and coach of multiple sports at Loyola over the past 50-plus years. If anyone has seen it all, it’s O’Loughlin, a 1959 Loyola graduate.

“He said this is up there with the best,” Holecek said. “2015. The ’90s you had some good teams, but they didn’t throw the ball. This is up there. It’s always going to be a conversation: 2015 and this one.”

That says a lot considering it leaves the 1993 and 2018 state championship teams out of the conversation.

As it has all season, Loyola slowly dismantled its opponent Friday. Marist hung in through the first half thanks to the quick-strike passing attack of quarterback Dontrell Jackson, who threw for 264 yards on 18-for-31 passing. But the wheels fell off in the second half and Loyola intercepted Jackson once just before halftime and twice more in the second half.

Ramblers defensive back Artist Benjamin had a key interception nearing halftime, picking off Jackson in the end zone as the RedHawks were trying to tie the score. Benjamin said the Ramblers treated Friday’s game like their Super Bowl because that’s all they had left.

Loyola was ranked No. 1 in Friday Night Drive’s statewide power rankings. No. 2 Lincoln-Way East and No. 3 Warren both won Friday to move to 6-0. In an alternate universe, some colossal matchups loom in the Class 8A playoffs.

“We want Lincoln-Way,” Benjamin said. “That’s who we want.”

Benjamin noted he would “jump out of bed and start watching film” if he could play the defending Class 8A champions next week.

“They got robbed of a playoffs,” Holecek said. “But still undefeated and champions for sure with the schedule that we have.”

Pemberton woke up mad Friday. Marist beat Loyola twice last year, including in the Class 8A quarterfinals. That was on his mind all week. After likely the best game of his career, he credited his offensive line. He said tackle Cooper Tamisiea called the play on Pemberton’s third-and-30 conversion.

Also rejoining the fray was offensive lineman Josh Kreutz, who played about a dozen snaps Friday. The senior Illinois recruit had torn his ACL last summer and only just returned in recent weeks. He played a handful of snaps in Weeks 4 and 5.

“That was what I was working toward as soon as I got hurt,” Kreutz said. “You’ve got to play with these guys one more time. They’ve worked too hard and this team’s too good.”

For every team, really, that’s what this spring season was about: Getting back to football. The Ramblers can at least rest easy knowing they left it all on the field. They won every game on the schedule.

“I don’t think any teams could beat us,” Pemberton said.