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Loyola’s Weaver spreads the wealth
Updated: September 12, 2011 8:03PM
Malcolm Weaver might be the luckiest player in the state, and the Loyola senior signal-caller knows it.
Not often is a quarterback blessed with so many reliable receivers, ones who can catch and run like these Ramblers.
Take Saturday’s 48-13 win over Lake Forest Academy.
On a short day, Weaver completed five passes to four receivers, three scoring touchdowns. On the season, eight Ramblers have caught passes, and five have touchdowns.
“It’s great to have all of the athletes we have,” said Weaver, who enters this week 34-for-54 for 440 yards and 11 touchdowns and one interception for the No. 7-ranked Ramblers. “I have a lot of people I can trust. I just give them the ball, and they make the plays.”
Marquese Martin-Hayes leads Loyola with 10 catches for 139 yards and one touchdown. Charlie Dowdle is next in line with nine catches for 135 yards and a team-best five touchdowns. Conner Person and Dylan Brennan each have seven catches.
“You always have to think you’re going to get the ball,” said Martin-Hayes, who was a running back before he moved to receiver for his freshman season at Loyola. “Teams don’t know who to cover, who to game plan for. We have an offense that can score when we need to score.”
Loyola proved that Saturday against the Caxys.
Down 7-0 early, the Ramblers ran off 41 unanswered points before the half. Weaver threw three touchdowns to three players in less than three minutes before exiting the game early in the second quarter in favor of backup Peter Pujals.
“We’ve been running this system for as long as I can remember,” said Dowdle, whose downfield block opened up a lane for running back Reed Michalek to score Loyola’s first touchdown. “It’s all starting to come together this year. We have a ton of threats on offense.”
Loyola scored 40-plus points for the third consecutive game and ran its record to 3-0. Michalek ran nine times for 61 yards and scored once. Willie Palivos added 43 yards on nine carries.
“We know our offense is potent,” Loyola coach John Holecek said. “We can score quickly.”
Loyola’s defense was equally impressive Saturday. The Ramblers limited Lake Forest Academy to five yards in the first half and gave the offense good field position in the first half.
The Ramblers now move into Catholic Blue play with Friday’s road game against Providence Catholic. Four of the five conference teams, including the Celtics, are undefeated.
“We realize we have a great opportunity to do something big this season,” Martin-Hayes said. “Everybody’s always known about our defense, but we wanted to shift the focus this year. People now are realizing how incredibly potent our offense is.”
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