EDWARDSVILLE – A three-yard touchdown run by Quinn Boyle with four minutes left in the third quarter proved to be the difference as Loyola Academy of Wilmette eliminated Edwardsville 17-10 in a semifinal game of the IHSA Class 8A Football Championship at EHS' Tiger Stadium Saturday afternoon.
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The loss snapped a nine-game Tiger winning streak; they hadn't lost a game since dropping a decision to East St. Louis in Week 3 of the regular season before going on a streak that got them into the playoffs at 6-3 and then to postseason wins over Huntley, Palatine and Minooka before falling to the Ramblers.
Loyola will meet the winner of the other semifinal game between Park Ridge Maine South and Fankfort Lincoln-Way East at 7 p.m. next Saturday at Northern Illinois' Huskie Stadium; the winner had not been determined as of 8:15 p.m. Saturday. The Ramblers head into the final with a 12-1 mark.
The game was played in wet, cold and windy conditions as a cold front moved into the area before kickoff.
Edwardsville took the lead thanks to a 40-yard field goal with 8:07 left in the first quarter by Devin Parker. Loyola countered with a 30-yard Liam Conaghan field goal with 5:26 left in the second before Rhys Logan went in from nine yards out late in the first half to put Loyola up 10-3.
Boyle's TD run with four minutes left seemed to put the Tigers on the ropes, but a six-yard TD run from Justin Johnson with 1:37 left pulled EHS to 17-10 heading in the final quarter, but the Tigers couldn't find the end zone down the stretch thanks to some big stops from the Ramblers.
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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
