No. 1 Marian Central routs St. Edward

St. Edward football coach Mike Rolando knew Friday’s game against Marian Central was going to be a tough task.

He was right. The Hurricanes scored on their first five drives and added a fumble return for a touchdown all in the first half of a 52-6 Suburban Christian Conference victory over the Green Wave at Greg True Field in Elgin.

“What we need to fix is still on our side of the ball,” Rolando said. “We had a couple of (good) drives. I would like to see us get some points out of them and take care of the ball a little better. Until we do that, it doesn’t matter who were playing.”

Marian Central (8-0, 6-0) rose to the top spot of the Class 5A state poll after last week’s victory over previous No. 1 Montini. There was no letdown against St. Edward (2-6, 1-5).

The Green Wave tried an onside kick on the opening kickoff, but the Hurricanes recovered. Four plays later, Minnesota-bound quarterback Chris Streveler hit Greg Walczak for a 19-yard touchdown. On its first possession, St. Edward went for it on fourth-and-2 from its own 31, but was stopped. Marian Central’s Ephraim Lee scored the first of 4 touchdowns six plays later on a 10-yard run as the Hurricanes took a 14-0 lead.

Liam Kirwan added a 24-yard fumble return for a touchdown with 4:54 left in the first quarter after ripping the ball out of St. Edward quarterback Mikey Castoro’s hands on a handoff attempt.

“You do worry after the game last week and St. Edward hasn’t won too many games,” Marian Central coach Ed Brucker said. “But I thought we came out and played hard. I was pretty proud of how the kids played.”

Lee, who finished with 110 yards rushing and 39 yards receiving, scored three times in the second quarter. The junior had touchdowns runs of 10 and 27 and scored on a 34-yard screen pass from Streveler as the Hurricanes led 42-0 at halftime, meaning the second half would be played with a running clock.

On the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Castoro faked a handoff, ran off left tackle and down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown for the Green Wave’s only touchdown.

“That option had been working pretty well several times during the game,” Rolando said. “Once they made a bunch of substitutions, they had some guys in there we could block. We blocked that play well.”

C.J. Wightman had a 2-yard touchdown run and Charles Shin added a 37-yard field goal to complete the scoring for the Hurricanes. Streveler was 9-of-11 passing for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Davontae Elam had 82 yards on 14 carries for the Green Wave.