The deeper you go in the playoffs, the smaller the margin of error becomes.
Marist found out how small Nov. 9 on their cozy home field. The RedHawks made only a handful of mistakes in the course of 48 minutes in their Class 8A second-round game against Loyola, but those miscues cost them dearly.
The Ramblers’ 24-20 victory was hard-won, but could have gone the other way had the Redhawks not seen the following happen:
- Loyola’s Drew MacPherson returning a punt 49 yards to the Marist 1 to set up the first Ramblers touchdown.
- Marist quarterback Jake Ritter, a dervish on the ground most of the day, getting stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Loyola 22 on Marist’s first second-half drive, while the RedHawks still led 20-14.
- Loyola’s Micky Maher blocking a punt on the Redhawks’ next series, giving the Ramblers the ball on the Marist 38.
- Loyola quarterback Ryan Fitzgerald rushing for 3 yards on fourth-and-1 on the subsequent drive, setting up the go-ahead touchdown, an 11-yard completion to Gavin Vradenberg, their second TD of the game.
But those dominoes fell, and the result was the end of the season for Marist (9-2).
When the final horn blew, Ritter’s stellar performance (299 total yards, 166 rushing including a touchdown on 23 carries; 133 passing including two touchdowns on a 13-of-19 showing) didn’t matter to him. Hugging and commiserating with his fellow players did.
“Tough loss,” said Ritter, who transferred to Marist in January. “A couple of special-team plays and a couple of fourth downs. They just wanted it more.
“The first half, it was the same defense we expected looking at film all year. We were in a groove. We got the big plays when we needed them. In the second half, we couldn’t hit the big plays – couldn’t hit that fourth-and-1.”
Ritter carried the RedHawks offensively much of the season, and the same was true against Loyola. His 299 yards were 92% of their 325 total. Cornell-bound fellow senior John McAuliffe, who ran 12 times for 62 yards, said as much.
“He’s one of the most hard-working kids I’ve ever met,” McAuliffe said. “He just works and works and works.
“We expected to win. We made simple mistakes. Our defense played great, but we got shut out in the second half, and that can’t happen. We played good and it wasn’t good enough.”
Marist had opened the scoring on Ritter’s 32-yard toss to Gavin O’Brochta with 4:22 left in the first. Loyola later led 7-6 (on MacPherson’s 6-yard run) and 14-13 (on Fitzgerald’s first touchdown pass to Vradenberg, a 5-yarder).
Between those two scores, Ritter ran 38 yards on a delay draw to make it 13-7. It ended up being not enough.
Fitzgerald, son of former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald (currently an assistant on the Ramblers staff), threw for 202 yards, completing 18 of 25 passes, and ran for 23. MacPherson ran 15 times for 92 yards, including a 6-yard touchdown run, plus a 50-yard gain to open their second scoring drive.
Ritter had a final word for those who follow him.
“We’ve got to tell the young guys to use this as fuel,” Ritter said. “You can’t cut corners. Every single day you’ve got to come ready to work, because games like these will show if you cut corners. There’s times we did and it showed up today in special teams and stuff like that.”