All eyes were on Mount Carmel heading into Week 2 after a tough loss to East St. Louis and an injury to starting quarterback Ryder Startz the previous week.
“That loss left us all with a salty taste in our mouth, so we weren’t going to let that happen again,” senior quarterback Brady Cloherty said.
Then in a game televised by ESPN, Mount Carmel fell behind by 30 points against defending New Jersey state champ St. Joseph Regional.
“Thirty-nothing, that is nothing to us,” Cloherty said. “The coaches were telling us to keep chipping away and great things will happen.”
They did. In his first start since transferring from Plainfield East, Cloherty set a program single-game record with seven touchdown passes as the Caravan stormed back to win 48-44 on Aug. 28.
Cloherty completed 26 of 41 passes for 309 yards.
“He just needed experience. Ryder took all the reps last week,” Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch said. “He’s starting to get confidence. This is a marathon. It is not a sprint.”
Coming into the season, Cloherty joined Startz and Thomas Elliott (the younger brother of two-time state champ quarterback Jack) in the QB room. Cloherty was ready when his name was called.
“We are all together — me, Ryder, Thomas,” Cloherty said. “No matter what happens, we’re all together. Tonight was my first start and I had a chip on my shoulder. I had to prove something.”
He connected with four different teammates on touchdowns.
“We had an amazing air raid today,” said Michigan commit Quentin Burrell, whose fourth-quarter touchdown catch gave the Caravan their first and only lead of the night.
Burrell finished with seven catches for 85 yards and three touchdowns.
Lindenwood commit Nathan Samuels gave some life to the Mount Carmel offense with a 45-yard run on a fake punt rush. That set up the Caravan’s first touchdown of the game, the first of two TD catches by Marshaun Thornton.
Samuels rushed 12 times for 102 yards and caught two passes for 45 yards. Duran Sims and Ty Kennedy each caught a touchdown pass.
“All these (guys) are great athletes — Duran, Marshaun, Q, Matteo (Bernabel) — and they all want the ball,” Cloherty said. “It’s good to have receivers that want the ball because when you give it to them, they’ll come down with it.”
Defensive back Joe Tracy secured the victory with an interception with 1:06 left in the game.
Mount Carmel feels better about being 1-1 instead of 0-2 had it lost to St. Joseph. The Caravan know challenges lie ahead, as their schedule does not get any easier with Nazareth up next and some tough Catholic League Blue games coming up. But they’re ready for the test.
“Our next goal is to win the CCL,” Cloherty said. “Coach Lynch got us ready for those first two weeks of great teams. So if we can keep this up, we’ll be fine.”