Brian VanderLuitgaren is a pretty good quarterback. He’s an even better prognosticator.
Both skills have come in handy this football season, the greatest in the history of Marian Catholic High School. For the first time, a Spartan team reached a state championship game, and for the first time, it won the title.
VanderLuitgaren knew it all along, has known it since that day three years ago when he sat in a Matteson restaurant with his father, Thomas, and Marian Catholic head coach Dave Mattio.
“I asked him if he’d ever win a state title, and he said he didn’t know,” said VanderLuitgaren, a freshman at the time. “I said I’d win him one. He got a little chuckle out of that.”
No one’s laughing now, not after the way VanderLuitgaren delivered on his pledge Friday night at Illinois State with the score tied at six early in the fourth quarter of Marian’s 13-6 Class 4A title-game victory over Geneseo Darnall.
From his own 29-yard line, he rolled right and threw deep to Sean Egglesfield for a 64-yard gain. Then on third and goal at the 1, VanderLuitgaren rolled right to pass again before scrambling for the winning score.
For Mattio, watching VanderLuitgaren’s quarterbacking skill brought back the memory of his forecasting acumen. Mattio already had known VanderLuitgaren for years when he made his prediction, long enough to know his reputation as a smart aleck. So he didn’t take the forecast very seriously.
“I think the comment came out of the fact he was a wise guy at a young age,” said Mattio, who coached VanderLuitgaren’s two older brothers. “He popped a question and then said, `You guys folded, so we’ll do it.’ And that’s exactly what he did.”
VanderLuitgaren’s ability and attitude are part of the reason Mattio finally made it to Normal. Twice before, he had reached the semifinals, and both times he had lost. The first, 22-14 to eventual champion Belleville Althoff in 1980, left a particularly painful memory.
That Spartan club was undefeated with the likes of future pro Mike Prior, a two-way back, and linemen Bobby Ziltz and John McGarry. But it was Marian’s first visit to the playoffs, and unfortunately for Mattio, a learning experience.
“One of the things had to do with maybe our lack of how to prepare and scout and know the intricacies of the state playoffs,” Mattio said. “We did not make good game adjustments.”
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Mattio, Marian class of ’66, led his alma mater to the playoffs seven more times without breaking through to the finals. It took until his 18th season as head coach for him to make it.
“We’ve been at this point a lot of times, but we’ve always lacked something,” he said. “Whether it was a player here or a defensive stop there, or more importantly, playing a bad game and still winning.
“We’ve never been able to get over the hump and get into this situation. This group was very consistent and got the job done.”
The biggest reason was running back Terence Marable. But Mattio believed his defense, led by linebackers Jerry Verde and Mark Clifford, may have been the formerly missing link.
His defenders played like it Friday, shutting down Geneseo repeatedly on a night when icy conditions, a leg injury and Geneseo’s own stout defense held Marable to 73 yards rushing.
“Defensively, we play very well as a team, and defense wins championships,” Mattio said. “If you stop a team enough, something good will happen.”
That’s the way seniors such as VanderLuitgaren, Marable and Clifford planned it.
“We won the sophomore title with seven sophomores on the varsity, so we knew we’d get somewhere far,” VanderLuitgaren said. “We’re very close, and we felt with learning through the years, where we are now is where we should have been.”
It took VanderLuitgaren, though, to let Mattio in on the secret. That took some spunk because the QB was almost as familiar as his coach with Marian’s playoff failures.
He had watched as his brother Tom played on the ’86 team that lost to Mt. Carmel in the semifinals, and again in ’88 as brother Michael lost to Reavis in the quarterfinals.
Reaching Normal and winning gave Brian a leg up on Tom in their sibling rivalry, though Tom still reminds little brother that he had to play in Class 5A.
VanderLuitgaren was thrilled to be the brother who finally helped lead Marian to the top, but he was even happier to deliver for his coach. “I owe more to Coach Mattio than anyone,” he said. “He deserves it the most. I’m just glad I got the chance to live up to what I said we’d do for him.”