It’s wise to learn from your mistakes, according to Marmion’s Ryan Loria.
Veteran senior cornerbacks like Loria live by their own version of an age-old adage that may read, “Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice with the same route or move, shame on me.”
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Loria, who is in his third year as a starter on defense for the Cadets, felt that he was torched on the first play Friday night. But he wasn’t going to let it happen again.
“Honestly, I love being on the island,” Loria said. “I feel like it’s my spot. It’s a little bit of attitude you have to have out there. I feel like I have that attitude so if someone is gonna come and try to catch some balls on me, it’s gonna be a difficult time for them. I love it.”
Visiting Benet rallied to tie Marmion 20-20 in a Catholic League crossover and had the ball back in the final seconds with a chance to set up a game-winning field goal attempt with one more completion if the Redwings could get out of bounds.
The 5-foot-7, 160-pound Loria had other ideas.
He jumped the route that stung him earlier and intercepted the pass, then motored 65 yards for a game-winning touchdown with no time left on the Fichtel Field clock at Regole Stadium in Aurora.
“All week during film, I had seen they liked to go to No. 8 on a comeback route on the outside,” Loria said Luca Diomede, a 6-1 senior receiver for Benet. “On that first play, I was way too much into my backpedal and gave up a completion.”
It led to a good gain for Diomede.
“I see No. 8 come to my side on the last play and I line up and shade outside a little bit because I thought I knew where he was going,” Loria said. “Thought it would be a 10-yard comeback.
“I jumped it and the ball was right there. It was backyard football at that point.”
And a glorious finish to a 26-20 win for the Cadets (3-3).
“We had talked about it and said, ‘When you have no other threat, make sure you’re playing that a lot tighter,’” Marmion coach Adam Guerra said. “And obviously he did.
“There may have been seven seconds left on the snap.”
Loria confirmed the TD wasn’t a sure thing, however.
“I wasn’t worried about someone catching me from behind,” he said. “I was worried about the quarterback having an angle.”
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Fortunately, 6-5, 225-pound senior defensive end Stephen Carlson had Loria’s back.
“Stephen hauled all the way down the field and got a good block on their quarterback,” Loria said. “I definitely give him a lot of credit. Without him, I wouldn’t have scored.”
Loria also forced a fumble to go with a pass breakup and four tackles, giving him 31 stops on the season. As a receiver on offense, he has two TD catches.
“He plays a lot taller,” Guerra said. “He’s a tough kid, works real hard. The weight room in the offseason gives kids confidence they might not otherwise have.
“Football can be unforgiving. Little guys have to tackle big guys. There’s no guard rails and you have to make it happen. Ryan has been doing that for three years.”
It may run in the family.
His dad Richard, who is 5-5, played cornerback at Maine South and then played rugby at Michigan State. His mother Elizabeth “is 5-1 or 5-2,” Ryan noted. “I come from a short family.”
Older brother Jack, who played football at Aurora Central Catholic and is a junior running back at Concordia Wisconsin, is the tallest in the family at 5-10.
“Defending taller guys, I stick with my technique,” Ryan said. “I try to make sure I’m there to break up the ball, aim to be a shadow the whole time.
“Get beat and you have to have a short-term memory, move on to the next play. If you don’t, you’re done and it’s not gonna be a nice day. That has stuck with me.”