To the list of upper-class Division I committed players at Mount Carmel, add one more, a sophomore: Marshaun Thornton.
Already 6-foot-2 and lightning-fast, the 15-year-old had nine touchdown catches among his 32 receptions in the regular season. That kept him on watch lists after a strong freshman year.
Saturday’s exploits before about 2,500 onlookers at Barda-Dowling Stadium moved him up a notch, and helped catapult the undefeated Caravan to a come-from-behind 21-17 victory over Loyola in the battle of the three-time defending champions.
“At 15, I weighed about 100 pounds,” Caravan coach Jordan Lynch said. “You can talk about Marshaun all day. He’s a sophomore and maturing and growing every single day. Just put it in his range. I’ve never met a kid with a bigger catch radius in my life.”
This connection does not come about by accident. Both quarterback Emmett Dowling and Thornton spoke of summer workouts as the sun rose over Lake Michigan, honing their timing. Saturday, with receiver Quentin Burrell double-covered most of the day, came the payoff.
“We knew that was going to be the one,” Dowling said. “He’s like Waffle House: Open 24 hours.”
Thornton’s second reception, an 80-yarder down the right sideline, brought the Caravan back into the game after the Ramblers had forged a 14-0 lead. His third, a 92-yarder down the middle of the field with 6:15 remaining, set the final score and made the crowd hungry for more.
In both cases, he caught Dowling’s pass midway through the route and jetted to the end zone, shedding a tackler like he was shaking off a coyote at the Loyola 45 for the second score.
“It’s the dog in me,” Thornton said. “It’s more arms than anything, but it feels amazing making plays in a big game like this. This is probably the biggest play I’ve made, especially with the playoffs.”
Dowling threw his way only one other time, but they made the most of their collaborations. Three catches for 187 yards accounted for 83% of Dowling’s passing yardage.
“We knew that was going to be the one,” Dowling said of the game-winning pass. “The safety kind of bit and it was a one-on-one matchup. I’m taking that any day of the week. He’s unreal.”
Mount Carmel had dealt Loyola (4-5) a 35-24 defeat last week in Wilmette, an outcome that carried over into Saturday’s first half in the form of sluggishness. But only that long.
“It’s hard to beat a team twice,” Dowling said. “We thought we’d come in and beat ’em by a lot more, but our defense stepped up. And Loyola had a lot of blitzes but my O-line gave me time.”
Loyola had gone ahead on Melo Maldonado’s 1-yard plunge late in the first quarter, and expanded the lead to two touchdowns when Jordan McKinley hauled in a 6-yard pass from Dom Maloney. But the Ramblers yielded Thornton’s first touchdown on the next play from scrimmage and managed only a field goal, a 46-yarder by Zac Zeman, the rest of the way. That gave Loyola a 17-14 lead two series after Dowling’s 4-yard run tied the contest at 14.
“We’ve got to be more physical,” linebacker Roman Igwebuike said. “We came out pretty slow. How we responded in the second half, we can use that the rest of the season.”
Because the Caravan (10-0) responded, they visit Belleville East (8-2), which beat West Aurora 48-34, in the second round on Nov. 8.