Lenti’s resolution
Senior safety makes key stop as Caravan battle past Ramblers on road
Senior safety Matt Lenti had to make one last play to make good on his one last chance to beat Loyola.
The Ramblers had a first-andgoal from the Mount Carmel 4-yard line with three seconds left in Saturday’s Catholic League crossover in Wilmette.
Loyola quarterback Matthew Schiltz found his receivers covered and took off for the left corner of the end zone.
Lenti stopped Schiltz just short of the goal line, however, and Mount Carmel had a hard-earned 17-12 victory.
It was Loyola’s first loss to a Catholic League team and lowest point total since a 10-7 defeat to the Caravan on Oct. 24, 2014.
“We manned them up outside, and they tried to run a switch route,” Lenti said. “Iwas the safety over the top; I saw the QB was scrambling out to his left. We had it pretty well covered, so I knew he was going to come up and run, and I came up and made the tackle.”
That capped a dominant effort for Mount Carmel’s defense, which had four takeaways.
And it ended a long dry spell for Lenti and his classmates.
“The seniors, this is our first time ever beating them,” Lenti said. “So we really wanted to get that.”
Sophomore linebacker Kenenna Odeluga had two interceptions in the final 2:04 of the first half. Lenti and Davion Brooks also picked off Schiltz, who was 21-for-39 passing for 246 yards and one touchdown.
The defensive dominance started with the front four of Koron Walker, Dominic Barbosa, Marcelo Mendiola and Max Zakman.
“Our D-line played an outstanding game,” Lenti said. “We shut down their run game early. After that, all they tried to dowas pass.”
Loyola ran 29 times for 86 yards and had 16 rushes that netted 2 yards or fewer.
On the other side, Mount Carmel had 86 yards on 18 carries from Demetrius Rias and 55 yards on 19 carries by Rad Premovic.
“Schiltz had a good day,” Loyola coach JohnH olecek said. “I thought we could do some things in the air. But we knew if we gave (the Loyola offense) third-and-longs and fourth-and-longs, that’s not good for us with their athleticism.”
Loyola scored 95 seconds into the game on Schiltz’s 7-yard pass to Rory Boos, set up by Michael Byrne’s interception. Loyola unsuccessfully tried to run in the conversion after an offside call on Mount Carmel on the initial point-after try.
The Caravan went ahead 7-6 on Kieran Conjar’s 1-yard TD run at 6:20 of the second quarter.
Julian Patino’s 40-yard field goal at 4:01 of the third made it 10-6, and Conjar scored again from 3 yards out for a 17-6 lead with 4:24 remaining in the game.
Tyler Flores’ 1-yard TD run got Loyola within 17-12 with 2:46 left.
But another failed conversion — this time on an intercepted pass — left the Ramblers needing a TD on their final drive.
Therewere other missed opportunities for Loyola, which had two touchdowns called back because of penalties.
“They game-planned us really well,” said Boos, who had 10 catches for 144 yards. “I’ll give them that. They had some big players on their D-line. ... We know our defense will stop the other team. At the end of the day, we just have to convert.”