Underdog Palatine ready for Loyola test
Palatine believes it has nothing to lose yet so much to gain when it hosts Loyola in today's 6 p.m. Class 8A state football quarterfinal at Chic Anderson Stadium.
The second-seeded Ramblers (10-1) won a share of their first Chicago Catholic League Blue title in 17 years. Their only loss was in overtime to Mt. Carmel.
The 14th-seeded Pirates (7-4) needed a Week 9 win at Barrington just to get into the playoffs. Then they stunned third-seeded Glenbard North 28-14 in their opener and ran away in the second half last week to a 42-14 win at Glenbrook South.
“It will be a good test and the nice thing is never once were we picked to win,” said Palatine coach Tyler Donnelly of one of three 4-loss teams left in the state playoffs. “It's a situation where we're the underdogs the whole way through.
“A 10-1 should beat a 7-4 team. It's like Glenbard North no one expects you to win.”
Except the Palatine players and coaches do now. It's an opportunity to get a big cutout of the state to hang in the gym for making the semifinals.
And if the Pirates get there it would be their first time since 1996 and make them the first Mid-Suburban West semifinalist since the state expanded to eight classes in 2001.
“At parts of the season you thought there's no way,” Palatins senior offensive tackle Tyler Farris said of being in this position. “When we lost against Schaumburg (Week 8) I thought, ‘Wow, this is not how I want my senior season to be. There was a lot of doubt.”
Helping erase those doubts is senior quarterback-safety Cody Bobbit. With Bobbit no longer hampered by a groin injury, he has rushed for 410 of his 805 yards the last three weeks.
Bobbit ran for 200 yards last week despite sitting the fourth quarter with leg cramps. He has hit 65.6 percent of his passes (164-for-250) for 1,903 yards and 15 touchdowns and has only been intercepted 9 times the last two years.
“No. 11 has been outstanding, and our whole goal was to get to the playoffs so we could run him,” Donnelly said.
“It's probably our stiffest test as far as a running and passing team as we've seen,” said Loyola coach John Holecek. “This quarterback makes that team go and he can do it both with his feet and arm.
“The Mt. Carmel quarterback (Chris Sujka) is terrific but he doesn't get the chance to throw the ball as much. No one we've seen throws the ball as well as runs it (as Bobbit).”
Bobbit is hardly alone with senior running back Jim Smearman (945 yards, 15 TDs; 26 catches, 239 yards, 3 TDs). Bobbit has a variety of targets in Dan Haze (39 for 513, 4 TDs), Jesse Bobbit (33 for 450, 3 TDs), Taylor Hall (38 for 321) and Nick McHugh (22 for 297, 3 TDs).
Loyola defensive tackle Mark Sullivan, who was the CCL Blue defensive player of the year, has 8 sacks. Peter McGuire has five and turned a forced fumble into a touchdown in last week's 14-7 win at Fremd.
Holecek said middle linebacker Dillon Murphy “has had a great year” and Robert Dooley and John McPike had interceptions last week.
“They're very aggressive and like to blitz a lot,” Donnelly said. “They'll bring blitzes from different areas to try to confuse you so we have to be sound in our protections.”
The Pirates, with the Bobbits, Haze and Smearman leading the way on both sides, have a big challenge on the defensive side.
Loyola senior quarterback Malcolm Weaver has thrown for 1,854 yards and a school-record 28 TDs after throwing just 4 passes last season.
“Absolutely going into the year, but now he's not a surprise,” Holecek said. “We have a lot of talented guys on the field and it's his job of dispersing it properly.”
Weaver has successfully to 6-foot-5 E.J. Webb (42 catches, 725 yards, 9 TDs), Marquese Martin-Hayes (28 for 414, 7 TDs), Charlie Dowdle (27 for 352, 6 TDs) and Michael Collins (20 for 213, 4 TDs). Weaver is also a running threat with Spencer Perry (644 yards, 3 TDs) and Willy Palivos (451 yards, 3 TDs).
But a rugged schedule to end the season with Fremd, Schaumburg and Barrington and the first two playoff games have provided Palatine with a good run of tests for its first quarterfinal game in 13 years.
“The coaches who were around then said you have to appreciate it because you don't know if you'll ever be back,” Donnelly said. “We're happy about where we're at but the kids are really hungry to get to the next game.”