By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
RUSTON – You got the feeling early on – actually before the game even started – that mistakes were going to be made as Loyola made the trip down Interstate 20 to take on Cedar Creek Friday night.
When the Cougars came out from the locker room minutes before kickoff, the five flag bearers spelled out C-E-R-E-K as they led the team on to the field.
There were no more spelling errors once the game started, but plenty of other miscues. There was no shortage of penalties (12), fumbles (8) and interceptions (4) by the two teams. But in between all of that the Flyers took care of business with a strong first half and went on to defeat Cedar Creek 48-14.
Loyola coach John Sella was pleased with the win as the Flyers raised their record to 2-1, but he wasn’t all that wild about how they did it in having to overcome four turnovers.
“Still a little sloppy,” the first-year coach said. “One of our goals is no (quarterback) sacks, turnovers or negative plays and then we turned it over a bunch. We talked about it all week about cutting down on those and then we go out and do it again. Something has got to get fixed with that and I think we will.”
One of the things that’s working pretty well for the Flyers so far this year is their defense. The only touchdowns that Loyola allowed were on a 1-yard Cougar drive after an interception and a late score with 16 seconds remaining.
The Flyer defense was credited with 10 plays that resulted in negative yardage. Linebacker Alex Mitchell caused a fumble on a sack and later recovered another fumble. Defensive backs Carter Ward and Evan Lirette each had an interception.
“The defense was awesome again,” Sella said. “I can’t complain about anything they are doing, especially the effort and energy they are playing with.”
There’s also not much to complain about with the Flyers offense as well, other than a couple of fumbles that stopped even more potential scoring drives. Loyola did not punt the entire night.
Loyola had a methodical opening drive, going 75 yards in eight plays, capped by a 2-yard scoring pass from Brock Restovich to Ben Brewer.
Later in the quarter, a 44-yard shovel pass from Restovich to Brewer set up a 16-yard Restovich scoring run to make it 13-0, which was followed by the first of three touchdown runs for Mason Drake. The junior running back had scoring runs of 7, 6 and 1 yard and finished with 74 yards on 11 carries.
Restovich, who also had another scoring pass to Brewer (44 yards) and to Colby Hamilton (2 yards), completed 18 of 29 for 240 yards in the game.
Brewer (109 yards) and Black (90) each caught six passes.
The Flyers will head into District 1-4A play next week with a home game against Southwood.
“I feel good about it,” Sella said. “To throw it as many times as we did today and last week and Bryce has been relatively untouched is pretty incredible for our offensive line. We are running the ball well. But those little things may not have cost us this game, but they will in district.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
LOYOLA 48, CEDAR CREEK 14
Scoring Summary
L – Ben Brewer 2 pass from Bryce Restovich (kick failed)
L – Restovich 16 run (Evan Lirette kick)
L – Mason Drake 7 run (Lirette kick)
CC – Mason Wooden 1 run (run failed)
L – Brewer 44 pass from Restovich (LIrette kick)
L – Drake 6 run (Lirette kick)
L – Colby Hamilton 2 pass from Restovich (Lirette kick)
L – Drake 1 run (Lirette kick)
CC – James Myers 6 run (Myers pass from Wooden)
Individual Statistics
Loyola Rushing – Drake 11-74, Restovich 7-36, Brewer 1-24.
Loyola Passing – Restovich 18-29-2, 240 yards, 3 TDs
Loyola Receiving – Brewer 6-109, Jake Black 6-90, Brock Geter 3-30, Hamilton 2-9, Drake 1-2.