By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
There are a lot of statistics that are getting thrown around about the undefeated Loyola football team, but if there is one you should pay absolute zero attention to, it would be time of possession.
Football coaches love to take about controlling the ball and keeping the opposing offense off the field. However, the Flyers don’t seem to give the opposing offense enough time to find a seat on the sideline before they are back on the field.
Earlier this year, there was a game in which the Flyers scored 10 touchdowns and all 10 of their drives were less than 120 seconds.
A week ago, six of Loyola’s eight touchdown drives were completed in five plays or less.
And they were at it again Friday night at Messmer Stadium in a 62-14 win over Woodlawn at Messmer Stadium. The Knights had twice the time of possession that Loyola had in this game.
This week, the Flyers had six scoring drives that lasts than a minute. If earning a letter jacket were based on playing time, there are some offensive players at Loyola who might need to go shopping for outerwear.
Just to show that they can slow it down occasionally, the Flyers did have two scoring drives that were nine plays or longer.
Still, this was not exactly a video that Loyola head coach John Sella will want to display as an artistic success.
“Ugly,” is the word the second-year coach used afterward to describe it.
Among the issues were a blocked punt, dropped passes and getting flagged so many times that referees needing to ice down their arms after the game.
Pretty much a recipe for disaster for many teams, but when you have an offense averaging 58.7 points per game, that tends to make up for a lot of mistakes.
“I was disappointed in our lack of discipline throughout the game and a lack of focus early in the game,” Sella said. “It will get fixed Monday. But I was happy with how we reacted to adversity and worked through it with the confidence we have in our offense and defense.”
Hard to believe, but the Flyers did trail in this game … for eight seconds
After Woodlawn (2-5, 0-4) scored on a Jeremiah Gustain 6-yard run and two-point conversion, the Knights led 8-7 before Loyola quarterback Bryce Restovich responded.
But not in the way you might expect.
Not with one of his five touchdown passes, which gives him 34 for the season and broke his own school record.
Instead, the junior rattled off the longest run of the season by any Flyer with a 50-yard touchdown scamper.
From there, it was business as usual with touchdown passes to Charlie McKenzie, Ty Walsworth and Brock Geter as Restovich completed 15 of 24 for 302 yards. McKenzie had five catches for 117 yards and three scores.
The Loyola defense had 16 tackles behind the line and two turnovers.
“I was proud how the defense kept them out of the end zone in the second half and giving us some short fields,” Sella said. “But we’ve got to get rid of the penalties (10 for 139 yards). We thought we had that fixed earlier in the season but apparently not.”
The Flyers, who are 7-0 (4-0 in district) and are No. 1 in the LHSAA’s Division II Select power ranking, will head to Leonard C. Barnes Stadium Friday night to take on Booker T. Washington (4-3, 1-3).
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com