Blainey Dowling and the Mount Carmel offense showed just how dynamic they’ve been this season during Friday’s win over Marist.

The Caravan quarterback threw four touchdowns, backup Jack Elliott came in for a play to throw another and running back Darrion Dupree caught two touchdowns and rushed for one.

Dowling has taken his game to another level this season but credited his teammates for why Mount Carmel has outscored opponents 163-10 so far.

“It’s great right now,” Dowling said. “I feel like my footwork is great and I need to give credit to my offensive line, they give me time back there and the wideouts getting wide open, it’s unreal how open they get.”

Dowling said the offense’s success starts with the run game. Dupree rushed for 139 yards against Marist, including a 55-yard scoring run where he broke multiple tackles at the line of scrimmage.

Mount Carmel has perfected short passes, which has forced defenses to pay closer attention at the line and opened up deeper passes. Wide receiver Denny Furlong caught touchdowns of 66, 38 and 4 yards against the RedHawks.

Dowling credited Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch for creating different game plans each week that have showed off his team’s multi-faceted attack.

“Coach Lynch is a genius, every week he has a crazy game plan and it works every week,” Dowling said. “That man is special. He’s got something most people don’t.”

Loyola’s defensive hiccups

John Holecek knew Loyola’s offense was going to have to carry the load early in the season with the Ramblers defense only returning three starters from last season, but the Loyola coach didn’t expect miscommunication and defensive lapses to be an issue in Week 4.

“I thought we would have these hiccups Week 1, Week 2, which is why I’m not really happy with it,” Holecek said. “It’s Week 4 and we shouldn’t be having this stuff happening to us.”

Loyola’s defense allowed 21 points in the team’s 57-21 win over Brother Rice on Saturday, the most it has allowed all season. The Ramblers allowed St. Xavier (Ohio) to score 13 points offensively in their season opener and then East Moline United scored seven and St. Rita followed that up with 14 points in Week 3.

The Crusaders scored on a flea-flicker after a Loyola QB Jake Stearney interception in the second quarter, then scored again in the quarter and added a touchdown in the third quarter.

Holecek thought his players lost focus and didn’t communicate well. He gave Brother Rice credit for running a smart game plan, but Holecek wants to see more discipline from his own defense.

“Things like that, I’m not really happy about because we practice these things,” Holecek said. “On film, gradings and meetings, it’s not going to be really pleasant, but we’ll get it fixed.”

Marist’s learning moments

Marist coach Ron Dawczak wants his team to learn from the mistakes that allowed Mount Carmel to beat the RedHawks on Friday.

“The takeaway from a game like this is attention to detail,” Dawczak said. “We cannot make mistakes, we cannot have breakdowns. There are certain weeks where you can get away with it, but in the CCL/ESCC Blue, when you’re playing the best teams in the state, they’re going to make you pay.”

The Caravan offense did whatever it wanted against the RedHawks defense, which only forced Mount Carmel to punt once with nine minutes left in the game. Miscommunication and breakdowns led to wide open deep passes in the secondary, which forced the offense to rely too much on the passing game in order to try and chip away at the Caravan’s lead.

Dawczak said it will be on him and his coaching staff to make sure the players learn from what went wrong.

“We have to learn from it,” Dawczak said. “Otherwise it’s going to happen again.”

St. Rita’s quarterback competition

Todd Kuska didn’t expect to keep Michael Collins in at quarterback after he took Jett Hilding out halfway through the first quarter against Benet on Friday, but the St. Rita coach decided to ride the hot hand with Collins. The Mustangs won 41-12.

Now Collins and Hilding will battle it out for the starter position again after Hilding won the job to start the season.

“We’re just letting them compete in an open competition and get after it,” Kuska said. “I don’t want to be in a situation where we’re playing two guys but competition makes everyone a little bit better. We just wanted to use those weeks to see what we have and now we want to fine tune it and see which guy is going to be better for us.”

The Mustangs offense struggled as the team started its season with three games against the CCL/ESCC Blue. St. Rita scored three points off a 51-yard field goal in its opener against Mount Carmel and then totaled 17 points against Brother Rice in Week 2 and 14 points against Loyola in Week 3.

St. Rita trailed 6-0 in the first quarter Friday and got the run attack going with Collins at quarterback. The senior finished his day with 67 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He completed seven of his 12 pass attempts but totaled only 10 yards.

Kuska thinks the competition will be good for the team as he tries to get the pass game going.

“We want to get the ball in the air and be a more-rounded team,” Kuska said. “We’re working on it.”

Brother Rice’s offensive improvements

Brother Rice’s young offense showed progress in its third CCL/ESCC game of the season by scoring 21 points.

Crusaders coach Casey Quedenfeld slowed things down offensively for junior quarterback Ryan Hartz in order to take time away from Loyola’s offense but also to help the Brother Rice offense.

“I think that worked out better for us,” Quedenfeld said. “They’re just getting more experience as we go along.”

Hartz threw for 185 yards and three touchdowns, one of which included a flea flicker where he hit Owen Gorman for 29 yards. The Crusaders made it a 28-14 Loyola lead with 1:03 left in the second quarter after a 21-yard pass to Randall Nauden but the Brother Rice offense couldn’t keep up with the high-scoring Loyola offense.

“When you play in this conference, you have to grow up pretty quickly,” Quedenfeld said.

Purple success continues

The CCL/ESCC Purple only has one undefeated team left, but the division still boasts the best winning percentage in the conference.

Carmel remains the lone undefeated team after the Corsairs defeated St. Viator 28-14 on Friday, which dropped to 3-1. St. Patrick defeated Marian Catholic 32-25 on Saturday to improve to 3-1 while the Spartans dropped to 3-1.

All four Purple teams will host games on Friday. Carmel plays Nazareth, St. Viator hosts Niles Notre Dame, St. Patrick takes on St. Rita and Marian Catholic battles Benet.