St. Ignatius 42 at St. Rita 16 Final

I'll drag it closer to game day by pointing out that you don't need to be a knucklehead to throw a good knuckleball.

Both teams have impressive wins, SR over Glenbard West and St Iggy over Fenwick.

Even with those wins I cannot figure these two teams out. I heard the lower classes were doing well for St Iggy so some people saw this coming.

2021......the upset heard around the world! Woke up the next morning to watch College Gameday and someone was holding up a sign that read "St. Ignatius beat Mt. Carmel" and the score.....they had the lead on us in 2024 in the 4th Quarter too until MC got a safety and Quinton Burrell returned the free kick for a TD and then another turnover put MC up comfortably but it was almost another jaw dropping loss.

I say jaw dropping because they have no size, no burning speed, and most on Rita's team is better athletically.....but they are a pain in the azz! They nickel and dime you down the field, they chew up an amazing amount of clock, and they make very few mistakes or miss their assignments. Last year when MC played them it was 14-7 at half and people were saying "Is this for real??". Yes...MC had 2 possessions and scored and Iggy had 2 possessions and scored once and burned nearly a half of play on those 3 possessions. Three yards and cloud of Dust!

They developed an offense that plays to their skill set and they perfected it....and they are obviously very intelligent and disciplined to remain focused. It's a very hard offense to prepare for.

Put 8 in the box, your DE's will not need to worry about QB pressure, keep hitting them hard, pressure them to pass and they eventually will to throw you off guard. Score every possession because you may not see the ball again for the rest of the quarter. It will be a very fast game with the clock.

I think this is the QBs third year at the helm so he's mastered the offense and it's been showing in their success so far. I'm guessing Rita will wear them down mid 3rd Q and put them away 24-14. This team should have beat ICC who beat Naz handily and beat Fenwick convincingly so as long as they don't overlook them like MC did when they looked ahead to BR in 2021 they should be OK

RockSoup said:

Since there is nothing much happening on the board this week, what about a good old-fashioned game thread?

I have not seen St. Ignatius’ option attack. Are they a pure knuckleball pitcher or a pitcher with a knuckleball?

Have these 2 teams met since the Don Hogan days?

Can St. Rita’s Junior LBs Schapendonk, Strand and Senior LB Tagler contain the Wolfpack’s option attack?

How does the St. Rita O match up vs the St. Ignatius D?

Can the Augustinians defeat the Jesuits 4 days after Pope Leo XIV’s Birthday?

Can this thread make it to gameday?

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Does anyone in the know at Rita know who #75 is? He's been getting some playing time on the OL, and he's fairly big. Great preview, btw.

Where's the defense? I know they may not have the horses this year on that side of the ball. I am hoping the coaching staff can regroup and develop a strategy so they're not giving up 29.6 points a game (should be higher, but LA took their foot off the gas pedal) isn't going too far into the playoffs. Who knows, though. Still would love to see more I-formation and play-action to keep their defense fresh.

Maybe several more players need to go both ways.

After this performance, I am dreading the potential score of the Montini game.

Prediction: 4 - 5 with probable double-digit--and potentially huge--losses at Lombard Bronco and LaGrange Park Roadrunner.

Will be in the 33 - 48 bracket with a "first round" game before the First Round. See you all then.

Watched some of the game - Rita just seemed confused by Iggy run game. Bunch of missed or weak tackles. Most likely will be a 4-5 season for Rita.

Wow. Looks like LA v Iggy could be a good one.

Very poor tackling tonight by Rita. Secondary tackling in particular. Can they play Fennell both ways because he maybe your best tackler. They just looked confused.

McCaravan said:

Very poor tackling tonight by Rita. Secondary tackling in particular. Can they play Fennell both ways because he maybe your best tackler. They just looked confused.

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How long can those players realistically keep playing both ways and still be effective for the rest of the season? That's not a sustainable approach.
This was a poor showing by the Stangs on Homecoming. The tackling was atrocious.
My question is: when was the last time Rita lost a Homecoming game?
As for the MSU commit, I still see him as a project. On several occasions, I watched him get pushed around by smaller Iggy players, which is concerning.

Swiftfeet17 said:

How long can those players realistically keep playing both ways and still be effective for the rest of the season? That's not a sustainable approach.
This was a poor showing by the Stangs on Homecoming. The tackling was atrocious.
My question is: when was the last time Rita lost a Homecoming game?
As for the MSU commit, I still see him as a project. On several occasions, I watched him get pushed around by smaller Iggy players, which is concerning.

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Being a running QB and taking the hits he does playing both ways the whole game is unrealistic for him to hold up the whole season but I would consider him coming in on third down or "must stop them now" plays. #11 didn't seem comfortable on defense as he does on offense. If there is any stud Sophomore or Freshman killing it on defense, bring them up, if nothing else it helps you for next season.

RockSoup said:

Rocks Recap:

Will be a quick one today.

First the positives:

The YouTube production was pretty incredible. For all the grief from week one and all the years prior, that was an excellent stream for a HS game.

Another positive is there are no more Jesuit schools on the schedule. I could tell they are upset over the papacy with a 73-16 score differential against them this season.

So far the season has gone L-W-L-W-L. Let's see if the Senior leadership can pull the Mustangs off the mat again. It won't be easy going into Montini but possible.

Congratulations to the Wolfpack and Capuano RB. It was an extremely impressive display.

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Very, very good stream! Great announcer, score and clock, had replays! By George you done it!!!

#34 certainly earned the right to wear Payton's #. Just an old school power runner who made people miss.