Best...Game...Ever...

...not really. But it was worth the price of admission (six bucks). And I can't remember the last time I was so excited to see a game. I thought about it all week. Could Loyola's defense contain Matt Perez? Had Maine South played anyone as good as Loyola? The questions dogged me in my spare time (and I obviously have a lot of it). I think the guy who sat behind me said it best when he announced to no one in particular, "I'd rather see this game than have 50-yard line seats at the Bears game tomorrow night!" No one could argue with that.

And how could they? It was like a Clash of Civilizations: the best that the Central Suburban South had to offer against the best of the Catholic Blue, arguably the toughest conference in Illinois. The defending State Champs with the 26-game winning streak and the plucky Sun-Times Player of the Year running back against an old-fashioned, hard-hitting Chicago Catholic League team coached by a former NFL linebacker. Only one team could emerge victorious. Is this a great country, or what?

The game turned out to be a battle of two quarterbacks, Will Forsyth of Loyola, and Tyler Benz of Maine South. (Perez left the game with an injury in the fourth quarter.) By halftime they had each thrown for one touchdown and run for one touchdown (Forsyth's a nifty 71-yard keeper). The game was tied at 14 as the two squads took the field for the second half. One of these teams would advance downstate; the other would watch the finals on TV. I turned to the guy next to me who just happened to be the coach of Bartlett. He was watching the game with his father. I asked him what he thought would be the key to the second half. Without missing a beat, he said solemnly, "Turnovers." His father and I nodded silently in agreement.

(Just like a Grateful Dead concert, the fans at a high school football game are a big part of the show. The coach's father had his own pearls of wisdom to offer. At one point, Maine South elected to go for a first down at midfield. Everyone in my immediate area gasped--we're all experts, remember--and the Hawks were stymied. If only Coach Inserra had consulted with us! The coach's father said it best, "That was the coach's ego!" And like any self-respecting fan, he repeated it several times for everyone's benefit. The guy sitting to my right was no less colorful. He had to be at least 80 years old and brought his own binoculars. I didn't realize people still did that. He was quite the home team fan, and looked like he'd been coming to the games since Hillary Clinton was a student there. I noticed he especially appreciated the refs' calls when they went the Hawks' way and wasn't at all bashful about wondering aloud exactly which game they were watching when the calls went the other way.)

While "Turnovers" might sound as banal as saying, "Whichever team scores the most points," it turned out to be prescient. For if not for three Loyola mistakes (a fumble on Maine South's 35-yard line that halted a key drive, a roughing-the-kicker penalty inside the five-yard line which denied Loyola the ball, and an interception in the Hawks' end zone and a 50-yard return that pretty much sealed the deal), the Ramblers could have won this game.

But it wasn't Loyola's day. Benz threw another pass for a touchdown in the third quarter which put the Hawks ahead for good, 21-14. (Last year, he played wide receiver and linebacker in the victory over Loyola. I'll be interested to follow his career.) A bad omen for Loyola early on was a missed field goal attempt by kicker Leo Sheridan. He'd set a state playoff record the previous week with five. (Otherwise, the final score would have been 21-17. Who could have predicted that?) But the match-up of the state's best defense against one of its best offenses didn't disappoint the estimated 10,000 fans at Wilson Field. The 21 points scored by Maine South was the fewest they scored all season and the most allowed by Loyola.

The Hawks will now return to the state 8A finals for the fifth time in seven years.