Marmion in semis, partying like it's 1989

In practice when Marmion causes fumbles, strips the football, picks off passes, the coaches reward the defense with oranges, watermelon slices and such.

In games such as Saturday's Class 6A quarterfinal against Lemont, the prize is bigger.

“Hopefully we get a state championship trophy, that's what we hope we get for today,” said Marmion senior running back-linebacker T.J. Lally, who caused 2 fumbles, recovered 1, intercepted his first pass of the season and ran for 143 yards with a 44-yard touchdown run on his home field in Aurora.

The big trophy is a bit premature but Marmion (11-1) deserves something grand for beating Lemont 31-20, sending the third-seeded Cadets into a state semifinal for the first time since 1989.

They'll visit another No. 1 seed, Danville (12-0), a 35-14 winner Saturday over Crete-Monee.

“It feels great,” said Lally, who also completed a second-quarter 37-yard halfback pass to Nick Scoliere that led to A.J. Friedman's 24-yard field goal for a 24-13 Cadets halftime lead.

“We wanted to be remembered hopefully want to be remembered as the best team in Marmion football history,” Lally said. “This is a huge step toward that, and we just want to win a state championship.”

After a busy but turnover-free first half Marmion forced 3 fumbles, recovering 2, and intercepted 3 passes against typically sure-handed top-seed Lemont (11-1).

“They haven't turned the ball over before,” said Marmion coach Dan Thorpe. “We hoped their day was coming, and it happened today. Great for us, unfortunate for them. We're happy and fortunate to be moving on, but I do think we earned it today.”

Lemont receiver Josh Ferry's 57-yard lateral catch and run pulled the Indians within 24-20 of Marmion with 11:14 left in the fourth quarter.

Each team turned the ball over twice in the next six minutes. Among them were an interception and a fumble recovery by Lemont standout linebacker Vincenzo Letizia, and Lally stripping an Indians receiver with the ball popping right to safety Mike Carbonara.

“We said it in the locker room at halftime we need some turnovers, we need the defense to pull out big, and we did,” Carbonara said.

It was really big when with about 5:30 to play Lemont quarterback Mike Hall, passing from his own end zone under heavy duress by Marmion defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow, threw a high floater intercepted on the right sideline by cornerback Mitch Loehmann.

Five plays after taking over at Lemont's 20-yard line, Cadets quarterback Bobby Peters found Scoliere dragging the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown pass and 31-20 lead with 3:36 left in the game.

Lally's interception on Lemont's next series allowed Marmion to run out the clock, joined by a flag-waving horde of ecstatic students swarming Fichtel Field.

“They played on the same field as we did,” Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen said of the turnovers on a cold, wet, windy day.

“We got the ball in the third quarter, we talked all halftime about getting a score and a stop, a score and a stop and it's a brand-new game,” Michaelsen said. “(We) had real good field position but unfortunately we turned it over. That kind of hurt us, but to the credit of my kids they kept fighting to the very end.”

Michaelsen said it was Marmion's style of game “physical, running” and at the start it looked it.

But after a trademark six-minute Cadets opening drive netted no points it evolved into a tennis match, with 34 points scored in 3 minutes, 43 seconds.

Garret Becker's 68-yard run set the stage for Carbonara's 5-yard touchdown run, a hurdle through Glasgow brothers Ryan and Graham on the left side at 3:22 of the first quarter.

Lemont wasted no time answering. Danny Lombardo received Friedman's kickoff and motored 77 yards untouched down the left sideline.

Marmion countered with 53-yard run by Becker who had a monster 164 yards on 15 carries and Peters' 22-yard rollout pass to Scoliere to set up Becker's 2-yard touchdown run over the right side for a 14-7 Cadets lead at 2:27 of the first quarter.

Two plays later Mike Hall hit Lemont game-breaking receiver Lee Taylor on a slant from the right slot that went for a 69-yard touchdown. He finished with 105 yards on 6 catches.

Marmion's Tommy Rogers blocked the extra point that meant the Cadets led 14-13 after a crazy quarter, but the scoring wasn't done. Lally followed pulling right guard Tyler Heinen on a trap run left for his 44-yard touchdown and 21-13 Marmion lead at 11:39 of the second quarter.

“To be honest with you,” Scoliere said, “it would have been bad if we weren't scoring, too.

“We stayed on top the whole time, so to do that was really important for us. (Lemont) is a team that flourishes off momentum swings, and to keep them under control the whole game, kudos to our entire team.”

That's who Thorpe did credit for this landmark victory, “unsung guys” starting with Becker and down the line with the defensive line of Blake Mickey, Tyler Boyd, Mike Eberth and Ryan Glasgow, the offensive line of Heinen, the Glasgow boys, center Mike Zolfo and right tackle Jake Winkel.

Those units created 363 yards rushing while holding Lemont to 236 yards total and allowing the Lallys, Carbonaras and Scolieres to play Tasmanian devil-style.

“(Lemont) had come in so opportunistic, and we hadn't seen where they had to come from behind or they had to do things out of rhythm,” Thorpe said. “That was really our goal, if we could get up on them. They've been so good about getting up on people and being able to dictate the flow of the game.

“Offense was tremendous tonight. We've been waiting for that, we haven't had that, but we were consistent on offense, that was tremendous. The opportunities were there, turnovers and the kids made plays.”