By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
The Loyola Flyers gave Booker T. Washington a taste of its own medicine in a 35-6 victory over the Lions in a District 1-4A game at Messmer Stadium Friday.
BTW is known for its ability to get a scoop-and-score – the Lions had two in the game last week. What happened late in the second quarter wasn’t a scoop and it wasn’t a score, but it sure seemed like a big turning point in the Flyers’ win.
“Definitely,” said Loyola head coach John Sella.
The Flyers were ahead 14-0, but the Lions were driving in Loyola territory and looking to score. With BTW also getting the ball to start the second half, things were getting a little tense on the Loyola sideline.
But on a carry by substitute quarterback Damion O’Neal, junior linebacker Alex Mitchell stripped the ball right out of O’Neal’s hands and took off in the other direction. Mitchell got caught at the 5-yard line after a 55-yard return, but Mason Drake scored two plays later and the Flyers took a 21-0 lead into halftime.
There were other big plays made by the Flyers and almost all of them were made by Drake. A week after rushing for a career high 171 yards against Woodlawn, he outdid himself against the Lions, running for 230 yards on 24 carries. He scored three touchdowns – the fourth time this year he’s done that – and in the process, went over 1,000 yards for his career.
“We ran the ball really well,” Sella said. “I was real happy with the offensive line. That’s been our strength all year and we just had to lean on them. It feels good to know that we can run it when we need to and that helps me out as a play caller.”
It was Drake’s 68-yard run straight through the middle of the BTW defense that got things started for the Flyers on their second possession.
Loyola added another score on a 20-yard pass from Bryce Restovich to tight end Colby Hamilton to make it 14-0.
The Lions struck quickly in the second half on a 73-yard pass from Devion Stewart to Von’Travious Moore to tighten things up a bit. The teams traded possessions for awhile before the Flyers ran for another touchdown. But this time, it wasn’t Drake. In fact, it wasn’t even by a running back.
Loyola put offensive guard/defensive lineman Jac Ebarb in the backfield on first and goal at the 10 and he reached the end zone on his second carry, a 3-yard run to make it 28-6. Ebarb then had a quarterback sack inside the Flyer 20 to end the next BTW drive.
Drake’s 39-yard run with 5:39 to play put an end to the scoring and raise the Flyers’ record to 6-2 and 4-1 in the district. They’ll get North DeSoto next week at Messmer Stadium.
Loyola had 469 yards in total offense. Restovich was 12 of 21 for 136 yards and also ran for 46.
The Flyer defense had some big fourth down stops that kept the Lions at bay but Sella said “We didn’t do as good of a job as we have in the past of tackling in space, so we’ve got to go back and try to clean that up.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
SCORING SUMMARY
L – Mason Drake 68 run (Evan Lirette kick)
L – Colby Hamilton 20 pass from Bryce Restovich
L – Drake 1 run (Lirette kick)
BTW – Von’Travious Moore 73 pass from Devion Stewart (pass failed)
L – Jac Ebarb 3 run (Lirette kick)
L – Drake 39 run (Cooper Varnadore kick)