Loyola will face several challenges in its Class 8A second-round game against Edwardsville on Saturday, but the toughest obstacle will be overcoming the loss of lead running back Will Nimesheim.

The junior suffered a knee injury against Plainfield South on Saturday and will miss the rest of the postseason. Now Loyola will try to fill in the gaps as it tries to advance.

“It just becomes more of a team effort where we’re going to have to have other guys step up,” Loyola coach John Holecek said. “We may have some guys move some positions, but we’ve always had someone willing to do the extra work and hopefully it’s the same this time.”

Loyola was already missing a body for the rest of the season in the running back group after backup Drew McPherson broke his ankle against Marist in Week 6.

Holecek said Luke Foster, who started the season on the sophomore team, has had some good recent runs and could get some more carries. Kyan Gibbs has also impressed during the season when he’s been healthy while Ryan Croddock has also presented some good runs.

Quarterback Jake Strearney will also continue to be a running threat as he has been all season.

Loyola will also need to travel 289 miles to play at Edwardsville after the No. 22 Tigers beat No. 11 O’Fallon, in their first-round matchup.

“You worry about the things that you can control and that’s something we can’t control,” Holecek said of the long roadtrip. “We take care of it and try to make it as pleasant as possible until we get there and then it’s a football game. … We’re going to do the same thing, it’s just going to be a little farther south.”

Loyola will try to stop an athletic and fast offense, led by quarterback Jake Curry and wide receiver Daion Gaton, who caught four touchdowns against O’Fallon. Holecek thought his defense learned a lot of lessons from its Week 9 loss to Mount Carmel where the Caravan scored 42 points.

He’ll see what the Ramblers learned Saturday.

“A lot of those things that we did wrong, you try to fix, try to show them on tape,” Holecek said. “You make sure your feet are right, you don’t run upfield, you don’t create running lanes, shuffling down the line of scrimmage, all those things that you can do better and address in practice. But we’re certainly looking forward seeing it two weeks later.”

Marist prepared for 10-0 York

Ron Dawczak thinks Marist is battle-tested for its Class 8A second-round game against York on Saturday.

The RedHawks coach has watched his team take on the state’s best teams throughout the season and knows Marist has learned important lessons in preparation for the Dukes, ranked No. 5 in Friday Night Drive’s latest rankings.

“I do think the experience that we have playing the teams that we played throughout the year, it does help us in terms of getting ready for this game and what to expect from a team like York that is really talented,” Dawczak said.

Marist’s three losses have come against three top-eight ranked teams according to Friday Night Drive’s Steve Soucie. The RedHawks started the season against No. 8 Glenbard West (33-31) and fell against CCL/ESCC Blue rivals No. 1 Mount Carmel (42-7) and No. 4 Loyola (28-17).

Dawczak thinks Marist learned that good teams will make them pay for their mistakes. The RedHawks fell behind against Glenbard West because of turnovers and Mount Carmel’s and Loyola’s offenses took advantage of missed assignments to put up large scores.

Marist learned how to fight back and used that in its Week 9 rivalry game against Brother Rice to come back and win.

“Having them see that and understand that the team is going to be hurt, whether it’s on offense or defense,” Dawczak said. “It’s that buy-in where 11 guys are doing their job, giving us the best chance to be successful. That’s something that I think we can take from the earlier games.”

Matchups like Saturday’s are why Dawczak likes to add tough nonconference games. While the 7-3 record might make it seem like the RedHawks aren’t as good as some other Class 8A teams, Dawczak would rather get the experience as long as Marist picks up five wins.

“Once you get in the playoffs, anything can happen, we’ve shown that in the past,” Dawczak said. “When we’ve made runs, we’ve been 6-3, 5-4, so the schedule that you play can help you prepare for the playoffs.”

Mustangs ‘survive’ in playoff opener

St. Rita coach Todd Kuska didn’t think the Mustangs played as well as they could despite winning their Class 7A opener against Geneva on Friday.

“We survived,” Kuska said. “We didn’t play our best at times, at times we did. I’m trying to get my guys to realize that it’s the playoffs now, you win or go home. I told the seniors you play as long as you want to play now.”

The Mustangs ran out to a 24-0 lead thanks to big defensive plays that provided momentum for the offense, but Kuska thought his team could’ve built a bigger lead. The team missed on a lot of little things like missing assignments that prevented St. Rita from extending drives and shutting out the Vikings.

St. Rita will focus on the fundamentals early in the week in their preparation for their second round game against Prospect on Friday. Kuska knows his team will need to play a cleaner game if it wants to advance to the quarterfinals.

“It’s going to be a matchup we’re going to have to look at and see what we think we can do,” Kuska said. “I know we’re going to have to score some points. We just need to execute in all phases of the game.”

Crusaders’ defensive clinic

Brother Rice’s defense played its best game to start the postseason.

The Crusaders had their second shutout of 2022 after they beat Jacobs 27-0 on Friday to start the Class 7A playoffs and Brother Rice knew it could control its opening matchup if it started fast.

“I feel like if we do our job we can control the game,” Crusaders linebacker Christian Pierce said. “We’re very efficient when we do our job.”

Brother Rice limited Jacobs to 162 total yards of offense, with 96 yards on the ground. The Golden Eagles failed to make it past the Brother Rice 16 in the entire game.

The Crusaders’ physicality has evolved into a new defensive system under first-year coach Casey Quedenfeld. After giving up 51 points to Loyola in Week 4, Brother Rice progressed and didn’t allow more than 28 points before falling to Marist in the regular season finale 34-16.

Brother Rice is hitting its stride when it matters most and the defense looks to continue playing complete games when it takes on Collinsville in the second round of the playoffs.

“We have a lot of playmakers on defense with the d-line, getting penetration every play, the secondary doing their jobs and it really starts with the penetration up front freeing us (linebackers) up,” Pierce said. “They’ve done a great job all year.”

CCL/ESCC strong playoff start

The CCL/ESCC had a strong start to the playoffs, with its 13 teams going 11-2.

All four teams in the CCL/ESCC Blue (Loyola, Mount Carmel, Marist and Brother Rice) advanced while all three of the CCL/ESCC Green’s qualifiers (St. Rita, Niles Notre Dame and Nazareth) also advanced to the second round. Joliet Catholic, Providence, St. Ignatius and Carmel also advanced while Fenwick and St. Viator ended their seasons with a loss.

Conference teams outscored opponents 439-158, an average of 33.8 points scored and 12.2 allowed. Seven teams scored more than 40 points — Loyola, Mount Carmel, Marist, Joliet Catholic, Nazareth, St. Ignatius and Carmel.

Ten teams can qualify to their respective quarterfinals, with the Hilltoppers and Celtics playing each other in the Class 4A playoffs.

Joe Stevenson contributed to this report