Sevenich, Marmion picks off Marian
What a difference a week makes.
A week ago, the Marian Central Catholic Hurricanes were flying high after defeating Guerin 81-7 to remain undefeated. This week; however, the Hurricanes found themselves on the losing end of a 28-10 defeat to Marmion.
Marmion senior defensive back Seth Sevenich set the tone early for the Cadets, scoring a touchdown and intercepting Marian quarterback Billy Bahl twice.
“We prepared for the deep ball all week,” Sevenich said. “I was just making my reads and I saw an opportunity to make a play.”
Marmion’s defense stood the test, holding the Hurricanes scoreless in the second half to secure the victory. Cadets senior defensive end and punter Nick Ferraro also had an interception and a sack, and landed several punts out of bounds to keep the Hurricanes from returning the punts.
“We couldn’t have done it tonight without the performance of our defense,” Ferraro said. “The linebackers were working hard and we didn’t need to blitz very often because our line was getting pressure. Coach reminded us that the last time we were here we fumbled on the 2-yard line and lost by one point, so we wanted revenge this week for Coach.”
Using up three-quarters of the first quarter on their first possession, the Cadets scored on senior quarterback Brock Krueger’s 2-yard pass to Sevenich, but the kick was low and wide left.
Marian Central (3-1, 1-1) scored their first and only touchdown early in the second quarter when Bahl hit Brett Olson in stride for a 64-yard touchdown.
Both defenses tightened up after that, and Marian Central kept Marmion from scoring midway through the second quarter when Krueger was intercepted by Johnny Churak on the 4-yard line on second and goal.
Marmion (4-0, 2-0) eventually scored with 1:41 left in the half on a 1-yard run by junior Jordan Glasgow. Glasgow got the call again on the 2-point conversion to give the Cadets a 14-7 lead.
The Hurricanes added a 26-yard field goal by Charles Shin with 26 seconds left in the half for a 14-10 halftime score.
Both defensive units came out in the second half with the mindset to make a statement, and both of them did just that.
Marian Central’s Josh Olson sacked Krueger twice, and Ferraro added a sack and an interception of his own.
With 42.5 seconds left in the third quarter, the Cadets faced third-and-17 from the Hurricanes’ 43-yard line. Senior running back and left-hander Same Breen took a handoff for a sweep to the left, but the southpaw stopped, planted, and fired a perfect strike in stride to Josh Meyers for a 43-yard touchdown pass to give the Cadets a 21-10 lead.
Sevenich’s second interception on the Hurricanes’ next play gave the ball back to the Cadets, and they scored 13 plays later on a 3-yard run by sophomore Lucas Warren for a 28-10 score.
Marmion head coach Dan Thorpe told his team that he thought it would take 28 points to secure a win.
“We talked about putting 28 (points) up, and these kids agreed to get 28,” Thorpe said. “I’m so proud of these kids. They really played with heart tonight. That halfback pass, we held tryouts this week and Sammy (Breen) was the last one to try it in practice, so thank God he did.”
Marian Central coach Ed Brucker admitted that the five turnovers made it difficult for them to win.
“I thought our defense played better the second half, but we can’t turn the ball over that much (five) and expect to win,” Brucker said. “We just dropped a lot of balls, threw a lot of picks, and we got beat. Marmion was a better team than us tonight.”