There wasn’t much that went wrong for Ryan Fitzgerald during his first season as Loyola’s starting quarterback.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior led the Ramblers back to the Class 8A state championship game, which Fitzgerald’s older brother Jack helped them win last year, and put an exclamation point on their undefeated run on Saturday night.
“It’s a tradition and an expectation of winning at this program,” he said. “But seeing them win last year and seeing how hard they worked, and my brother telling me the only way we can be better is to be a perfect 14-0, and we did it.”
Fitzgerald was a big reason for that, completing 17 of 21 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 89 yards and a TD during Loyola’s 26-15 win against Lincoln-Way East at Illinois State’s Hancock Stadium.
The Ramblers beat the Griffins in the state final for the second straight season.
Entering the game, Fitzgerald had passed for 1,853 yards with 18 TDs and only one interception, and he had rushed for 13 TDs.
“We’ve been throwing the football around in his backyard as soon as we could walk, and that connection shows on the field,” Loyola junior running back Drew MacPherson said. “But he leads everybody on the field, rises everybody up. He’s an unbelievable leader, and I can’t wait to play with him next year.”
Fitzgerald and MacPherson, who rushed for 120 yards and a TD on 15 carries against the Griffins (13-1), will be known commodities next season. But that was far from the case in the summer as first-year coach Beau Desherow succeeded John Holecek with nine returning starters on defense but a new starting quarterback.
“We knew that as a junior with no starting experience that there would be some question marks,” Loyola senior linebacker Quinn Herbert said. “We knew as a defense we’d be good and might have to bail him out at times. But, honestly, we didn’t have to do it much. He was great from day one.
“In our first game, he made a throw to (Will) Carlson that was one of the best throws I’ve ever seen. It was then that we knew that we’d be pretty good.”
Fitzgerald — whose father, former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, is a volunteer assistant for the Ramblers — saw it all coming together as the season progressed.
“For us being a new offense, you did see a lot of mental mistakes and hiccups in the first half of the year,” Ryan Fitzgerald said. “It was about limiting those mental mistakes and building off each week. It all builds to Week 14, which was today.”
There was arguably only one play against Lincoln-Way East that Fitzgerald didn’t execute flawlessly. It was a fumbled exchange late in the third quarter deep in the Griffins’ territory. A touchdown there would have given the Ramblers a commanding 27-7 lead.
Fitzgerald took a couple of minutes to vent on the sidelines but then was ready to go back to work.
“When I’m walking off all frustrated, my teammates pull me aside and calm me down,” he said. “That’s part of what makes us a well-oiled machine. Every single time we’ve faced adversity, we don’t get flustered and don’t get rushed, and we end up doing something good the next drive.”
Sure enough, Fitzgerald needed only seven plays on Loyola’s next possession to score a touchdown.
The next drive Fitzgerald starts, he’ll be leading the offense for a two-time defending state champion.
“We’re going to have the target on our backs next year,” he said. “We’re going to enjoy this tonight and for the next few weeks. It’s great having won 2023, but now we want 2024.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.