'A great day to be a Rambler' Loyola players honor late coach by winning at Hoerster Field

Loyola 35, Lake Central 14

Interim Loyola football coach Carl Favaro wiped tears from hiseyes after he flipped the game ball to John Hoerster Jr.

Playing a game that was racked with emotions, the Ramblers openedtheir season Saturday with a 35-14 victory over Lake Central of St.John, Ind., before a huge crowd in Wilmette.

Hoerster Jr., who is the sophomore coach and a teacher at MountCarmel, came down to the field after the game to congratulate Favaro,who had coached with his late father for more than 16 years.

Hoerster's father, John Hoerster, died Monday after suffering aheart attack and was buried Friday.

Favaro took the game ball, tossed it to Hoerster Jr. and told him,This is for your mother."

I know that John is up there and has all the saints singing theLoyola fight song," Favaro said. We talked about everyone goingthrough this all week, and it was very rough for the kids to burysomeone they love. I didn't have to say much today."

Before the game, Hoerster was honored with a moment of silence.The press box had a large sign that proclaimed it the newly-namedHoerster Field. There were T-shirts worn by students honoring theformer coach, and the players had a helmet insignia that read CoachJ.H."

Loyola rector Father Peter Breslin proclaimed, The halls of LoyolaAcademy will forever be filled with John Hoerster's zest for life. Weplay today in his honor.

We lost a man who embodies all that is good about high schoolathletics."

After a moment of silence, the Loyola fight song was played.

The cheerleaders all wore heart-shaped buttons with Hoerster'spicture, and the students' T-shirts proclaimed in Hoerster's words:'It's a great day to be a Rambler."

It was an especially great day to be Tregg Duerson, son of formerBears defensive back Dave Duerson. The 5-10, 160-pound senior had 16carries for 195 yards and scored the Ramblers' first four touchdownson runs of 74, two, five and five yards.

It has been a really hard week for all of us," Duerson said. Butwe've been together as a team, and everyone was on the same page.After all that happened, the game was a definite relief. We've beenwaiting nine months for this day. Last year was coach's only losingseason [in 16 years]. We took it personally, and after one week off,we were back in the weight room. Today, we were ready to play."

I'm just glad John decided that [Duerson] was our tailback and nota cornerback," Favaro said. This wasn't a one-man show, but the onlyway we were going to do this was together with all the coaches andall the kids."

Dwayne Fry capped the Loyola (1-0) scoring with a 59-yard burstmidway through the fourth quarter.

Lake Central, which beat South Bend Central in its opener lastweekend, fell to 1-1.

But Saturday was indeed a great day to be a Rambler."