Bloomington was thankful for that. The Purple Raiders thought the turf edge actually went to them on St. Rita's AstroPlay surface.

"I love it, I love it," said an excited BHS tailback James Wade of the AstroPlay. "That's why I'm going to love (next) Saturday."

Once Wade got to the outside, he was unstoppable against St. Rita. The senior rushed for 194 yards on 23 carries and the BHS defense held off the Mustangs, 20-7, at Doyle Stadium to advance to the championship game for the second straight year.

Ninth-ranked BHS (13-0) meets No. 1 Mundelein Carmel (13-0) at 1 p.m. next Saturday at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium in Champaign. The Raiders will be out to avenge last year's 31-0 title game loss to Chicago Mount Carmel.

"James did an outstanding job. We felt we had a quickness advantage. We like playing on the turf," said BHS coach Rigo Schmelzer. "I'm not sure we could have had the same results on our field back home."

BHS took a 14-0 halftime lead on Wade's touchdown runs of 3 and 54 yards. Wade also busted a 36-yard run to set up BHS inside St. Rita's 10-yard line late in the half, but the Raiders fumbled away a chance to go ahead 21-0.

The Raiders' defense held St. Rita's 2,000-yard rusher Wade Weyer in check most of the game.

However, Weyer was able to break free on a 42-yard punt return for a touchdown with 1:26 left in the third quarter to cut BHS' lead to 14-7.

After a BHS drive stalled at St. Rita's 29-yard line, the Mustangs looked poised to tie the game.

St. Rita began pounding Weyer into the middle as the Mustangs' line seemed to be wearing down the undersized BHS front. But with first down at the Raiders' 19, the Mustangs probably got a little greedy.

Michael Kafka, who moved from wide receiver to quarterback in the third quarter in relief of Mike Cummings, was intercepted by BHS' Donald Brown at the 3 with 7:27 left.

"The quarterback underthrew the ball," said Brown of his eighth interception of the season. "I layed down and caught it."

"We felt we had all the momentum going. We had stopped them defensively," said St. Rita coach Todd Kuska. "It's a play we work on all the time. It was open. The DB made a great play. He jumped the pattern and picked it off."

BHS worked the ball out to its 39 before punting. The Raiders' Justin Grant made Mike Neumann's 45-yard punt even better by dropping St. Rita's Mike Wilkinson for a nine-yard loss on the return as Wilkinson tried to go wide, putting the Mustangs on their own 6.

Cummings was back at quarterback for St. Rita. But his fourth-down pass at the 11 fell incomplete with 2:38 left. Two plays later, Justin Harrison bulled through the middle for the clinching 8-yard TD run.

"This whole season we've been trying to prove people wrong. That was our whole goal," said Wade. "We let everyone know we were getting back to state. I told them if they believed, no one would stop us, and they haven't stopped us yet. We're not done."

Before the game, Schmelzer said he liked the Raiders' odds if Wade got on the outside with only the free safety. The BHS coach proved prophetic.

"He said we were going to be on turf, and I felt like I'm very fast to the outside on turf," said Wade, who went over 2,000 yards for the season. "I felt if my teammates could sustain the blocks -- which they did very well, the offensive line, the receivers, Justin the fullback -- they all held them for me. I just ran to the outside as fast as I could."

BHS had a 68-yard reverse TD run by Brandon Hughes called back by a holding penalty late in the third quarter. The Raiders were hit for 86 yards in penalties, while St. Rita had 20.

"We were on our heels the second half. I have no idea how many penalites were called on us," said Schmelzer. "I was disappointed the way things unfolded, but our kids played with heart and you have to give them tons of credit."

Especially the BHS defense. Led by strong safety Rod Arrington (14 tackles) and Harrison at linebacker (11 tackles, two interceptions), the Raiders limited St. Rita to 211 yards of total offense.

"We did it with our superior size on the defensive line," said a joking Schmelzer. "(Defensive) Coach Don Anderson was able to mix up the defense and keep them off guard. The contain part is tribute to our speed at the point of attack."

In this case, speed did kill -- the Mustangs.

"They were very fast. That's probably the fastest team we've played all year long," said Kuska. "It didn't surprise us. We knew it coming. It was hard to answer. They have a lot of weapons and a lot of guys who could run."

Schmelzer said beforehand that St. Rita might be in the same conference (Catholic Metropolitan League) as Mount Carmel, but a year made a difference.

"This team (St. Rita) had a great season and a great year, but they were not the same size as Mount Carmel last year and the same quality and it wasn't the same weather," said Schmelzer, referring to the wind and bitter cold last year at Champaign.

Contact Jim Benson at jbenson@pantagraph.com