Marmion can’t slow Jacobs’ Mooney
Jacobs quarterback Brett Mooney made the most of his first varsity start Friday night.
Mooney, a 6-4, 210-pound junior, completed 8-of-16 passes for 179 yards and a pair of first-half touchdowns to help lift the Golden Eagles (1-0) to a 35-13 nonconference triumph over host Marmion (0-1) at Fichtel Field in Aurora.
Playing behind returning all-conference quarterback Jason Judson, Mooney only saw limited time at the varsity level last season for the playoff-bound Golden Eagles.
Based on Friday night’s 2012 season opener, the time was well spent.
“I was lucky to play a few snaps behind Jason last year,” said Mooney. “It got me prepared.”
Jacobs jumped on top early with a pair of first-quarter touchdown drives engineered by Mooney.
On their first series, the Golden Eagles’ Steven Varela (21 carries, 97 yards) converted a fourth-and-1 play near midfield with an 11-yard run before Mooney dropped back and lofted a perfect strike to a streaking Hunter Williams down the left sideline for the game’s first score less than 2 minutes into play.
The 42-yard touchdown pass and subsequent point-after kick from Matt Fahey put Jacobs on top 7-0.
“I saw the corner in a dead situation so I just wanted to give him (Williams) a chance to catch the ball,” Mooney said of the fade pattern. “It was a great way for our team to start the game.”
After forcing a 3-and-out on the Cadets’ opening offensive series, the Golden Eagles capitalized on the short field with a 7-play, 41-yard scoring drive that was capped by Varela’s 1-yard TD run to make it 14-0 halfway through the first quarter.
“We got off to a great start,” said Jacobs coach Bill Mitz, who guided the team to a state playoff berth in 2011. “That was huge.”
Marmion squandered a scoring chance with a red-zone fumble before finally getting on the board late in the first quarter.
Taking over at the Jacobs’ 38, the Cadets converted a pair of first downs thanks to the nimble footwork of quarterback Charlie Faunce (12 carries, 85 yards) before sophomore tailback Jordan Glasgow (21 carries, 80 yards) scored on a 10-yard run through the middle of the Golden Eagles’ defense.
Varela added his second short TD run to up Jacobs’ lead to 21-6 midway through the second quarter before the Mooney-to-Williams connection struck again – this time on a 75-yard TD pass with 2:41 remaining before halftime.
“For his first varsity start, I thought Brett threw the ball awfully well,” said Mitz. “He threw a lot of balls tonight that were right on the money.”
Reserve running back Connor Conzelman’s 2-yard TD run upped Jacobs’ lead to 35-6 midway through the fourth quarter before Cadets quarterback Brock Krueger scored on a 2-yard keeper with 27.3 seconds remaining.
“Our goal at halftime was to win the second half,” said Marmion coach Dan Thorpe. “We tied (7-7) but there were some positives with that.”
As for the first half, Thorpe had an idea what went wrong.
“We hoped that wouldn’t happen,” he said. “We knew they were a good football team and that we had to play well. We had two turnovers inside the 10-yard line.
“Basically, you can’t give up 35 points and make a lot of first-time mental mistakes.”