Loyola ends Palatine's run
Loyola ran the right combination to bring an end to Palatine's run in the Class 8A state football playoffs on a cold and windy Saturday night.
Spencer Perry hammered his way to 123 yards and 2 short second-half touchdown runs. Senior defensive tackle Mark Sullivan was a run-stopping monster as second-seed Loyola topped No. 14 Palatine 14-0 at Chic Anderson Stadium.
“That definitely wasn't what we were used to,” junior center Robert Delaney said of Loyola rushing for all but 7 of its 250 total yards. “It was a combination of the conditions and we had to chew up the clock.
“We had to stay on the field because (Palatine quarterback) Cody Bobbit is a stud.”
Bobbit had rushed for 410 of his 805 yards as Palatine (7-5) had pulled upsets of Barrington to end the regular season and Glenbard North and Glenbrook South to make its first quarterfinal appearance in 13 years.
But Sullivan, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Chicago Catholic Blue defensive player of the year, was in on 6 tackles for loss and two stops for no gain to send the Ramblers (11-1) to their second straight semifinal berth.
They'll be at home at 1 p.m. next Saturday against two-time defending 8A champion Maine South (10-2), which won 20-9 at Stevenson (11-1).
“There was nowhere to run,” said Palatine senior Jim Smearman, who came in with 945 yards but was held to 1 yard on 6 carries.
“We just didn't want to give up the big play,” Sullivan said. “(Bobbit) broke out a couple of times but we didn't really let him get to the edge.”
Palatine made four trips into Loyola territory and three times had first down inside the 30. But Sullivan, Eric Hauser, Samuel Kwakye and Peter McGuire helped keep the Pirates off the scoreboard for the first time since their second-round playoff loss to Mt. Carmel in 2007.
Bobbit was 13-for-23 passing for 145 yards in the final game of his stellar three-year career.
“By far that was the best defensive team we've played all year,” said Palatine coach Tyler Donnelly. “We thought Glenbard North was tough, but it was like Cody said, (Sullivan) was as fast as him.
“Cody was in high gear and Sullivan was running right next to him.”
But Palatine's defense was holding its own with the bigger Ramblers.
A 31-yard interception return by Dillon Murphy just 2:53 into the game put Loyola at the Palatine 13. But Bobbit broke up a pass and 1 of 7 tackles by senior Rory Fritz stopped quarterback Malcolm Weaver for a 5-yard loss to help end the threat.
Weaver came in with 1,854 yards passing and a school-record 28 touchdowns. But Fritz and Joe Froelich batted away passes and the secondary of Bobbit and his brother Jesse, Dan Haze and Kurt Becker limited Weaver to 7 yards on 3-for-10 passing.
“Defensively we couldn't do much better,” Smearman said, “but we needed to put points on the board and we couldn't tonight.”
And Cody Bobbit called it “a game of inches” after he narrowly missed a couple of deep shots down the middle for Nick McHugh just before and after halftime.
On the second play of Loyola's first second-half possession, Weaver raced 50 yards to the Palatine 14. Weaver then hit E.J. Webb for 7 yards on fourth-and-5 from the 9 and Perry powered into the end zone on the next play.
“Being able to pound it in was huge for us,” said Delaney, who lives four blocks from Palatine, of the 75-yard drive. “Especially in the playoffs, you need both phases of the game to be top-notch.”
Palatine drove to the Loyola 25 in the fourth quarter. But a holding penalty and two stops of Bobbit by Kwakye, McGuire, Sullivan and Hauser forced a punt.
A pass interference penalty which Palatine disputed on third-and-7 kept Loyola's next possession alive. A missed tackle turned a potential 5-yard gain by Marquese Martin-Hayes into 40 yards and two plays later Perry went in from 3 yards with 4:40 left.
“We played tough,” Cody Bobbit said. “They're a big, tough team and well-coached. They're disciplined, they play hard and they play with a chip on their shoulder.”