By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
When the worst thing that happens to your team is getting a delay of game penalty for having too long of a halftime Homecoming ceremony, you’ve had a pretty good night.
The Loyola Flyers had a pretty good night.
So good that head coach Mike Greene isn’t sure whether he is more pleased with his offense or his defense.
“I was pleased that we scored that many points, but defensively we’ve had to come up with some things because we have so many out (with injuries),” Greene said. “But they did a really good job. It all worked out.”
The Flyers jumped out to a quick lead and were never really threatened after that in a 47-21 District 1-2A win over D’Arbonne Woods Friday night at Messmer Stadium.
Loyola brought a play out of the bag of tricks for the first score as quarterback Cooper DeFatta handed off, then got a pitch back to him and fired a 37-yard strike to Grayson Hutchins for a touchdown on the opening drive.
When the defense got a fumble recovery (by Casey Wall) on the next play, the Flyers went back to work, getting a touchdown on a 17-yard run by DeFatta. Just 3:14 into the game, it was 12-0.
“When we got ahead like that, I knew we could relax and play some defense,” Greene said. “I was worried about coming back out after half, but we did a good job there too.”
The Flyers switched to a four-man front for the first time this year and got rewarded with fumble recoveries on the first play of the first half and the second play of the second half.
“I’m really pleased,” Greene said. “I think we are starting to play really hard and when you do that, good things happen.”
DeFatta had a second touchdown run (12 yards) late in the first quarter to put the Flyers up 19-7 and also threw a touchdown pass to Robert Pavlick just before halftime.
The senior quarterback ran for 137 yards and threw for 138 (completing 8 of 12), both career highs. Running back Reagan Coyle ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns and Hutchins caught four passes for 89 yards.
“Cooper played a great game, Reagan ran the ball well and Hutchins played really well,” Greene said. “And to score points like that . . . I was worried all week about that.”
Freshman Mason Drake scored a touchdown for the second straight week on a 36-yard run.
It was Loyola’s biggest scoring output of the year and was the Flyers’ third straight win. The winning streak started in September in a game in which Loyola scored nine points.
“We played those tough games at the start of the season and I told them it was going to make us better,” Greene said. “That’s starting to show now.”
The Flyers (3-3, 2-0) will try to make it four in a row when they travel to Lakeside Friday night.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
Loyola 47, D’Arbonne Woods 21
Score by quarters
D’Arbonne Woods | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | – 21
Loyola | 19 | 7 | 14 | 7 | – 47
Scoring summary
L – Grayson Hutchins 37 pass from Cooper DeFatta (kick failed)
L – DeFatta 27 run (run failed)
DW – Wyatt Gilbert 38 run (Luis Garcia kick)
L – DeFatta 12 run (Evan Lirette kick)
DW – Gilbert 5 run (Garcia kick)
L – Robert Pavlick 12 pass from DeFatta (Lirette kick)
L – Reagan Coyle 7 run (Lirette kick)
L – Coyle 18 run (Lirette kick)
L – Mason Drake 36 run (Lirette kick)
Individual leaders
Rushing
D’Arbonne (40-151) – Carlos Alejo 17-57, Wyatt Gilbert 6-48, Narciso Valerio 6-48, Weston Jones 8-9.
Loyola (31-288) – DeFatta 13-137, Coyle 11-104, Drake 4-48, Colby Hamilton 1-14, Jackson Barnes 1-minus-4, Team 1-minus-14.
Passing
D’Arbonne – Jones 15-21-0, 108 yards.
Loyola (8-14-0-138) – DeFatta 8-12-0, 138 yards, Hamilton 0-2-0.
Receiving
D’Arbonne – Hayden Gray 6-54, Gage Godina 4-8, Zarius Sampson 2-29, Gilbert 1-5.
Loyola – Hutchins 4-89, Pavlick 2-15, Barnes 1-28, Rowan Guthikonda 1-6.
