Rockford Boylan turns over Marmion for 6A title

CHAMPAIGN -- “You laid it on the line!” Marmion coach Dan Thorpe roared to his history-making Cadets moments after they lost the Class 6A state championship game to Rockford Boylan 48-19 Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.

That will be the first of many consoling words Marmion senior Nick Scoliere will hear. And while he knows the sentiment is true, it did little to take the sting off a 6-turnover game and the feeling the Cadets weren't able to play their best game in the biggest stage of the season.

“Everyone has their off days and we just had ours on the wrong day,” Scoliere said. “This doesn't take away from what we did, we still had a tremendous season but as far as this game goes it's something that set us back. We wanted this one real bad and it didn't go our way.”

While Rockford Boylan (14-0) completed a perfect season and celebrated its first state championship, the Cadets (12-2) were left to ponder what went wrong after a promising start that saw them take early 7-0 and 13-7 leads.

The Cadets entered the game with a plus-21 turnover ratio, including plus-8 the past two weeks. It was a completely different story Saturday with Marmion losing all four of its fumbles and throwing two interceptions.

“Our heads weren't screwed on straight,” Marmion senior Mike Carbonara said. “We played a bad first half and a worse second half but we never stopped fighting.

All the mistakes helped Boylan reverse the early deficit and take a 27-19 halftime lead, then added fuel to the Titans' fire in the second half when they outscored Marmion 21-0.

“We beat ourselves,” Marmion quarterback Bobby Peters said. “In the second half they just put it away. I give all the credit to Boylan but we made a lot of mistakes too.”

Boylan converted three straight third downs on its opening possession, the final one a 32-yard pass to Aaron Einhorn to give the Titans first down at Marmion's 20-yard line.

Scoliere made the first of his big plays on defense, stripping Tyries Thomas. Junior linebacker Mike Shares fell on the ball to halt the drive and the Titans' early momentum.

Marmion went to work immediately behind its offensive line. T.J. Lally ran for 12 yards on their first play from scrimmage to the left through a hole opened by Ryan and Graham Glasgow.

Two plays later Mitch Loehman broke free to the right for 8 yards behind Jake Winkel and Tyler Heinen, while center Mike Zolfo helped create gaps up the middle. A pass interference call on attempt to Scoliere helped move the chains, then Scoliere carried two would-be tacklers with him 13 yards into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

Besides the penalty, all 80 of the yards on the 9-play drive came on the ground. Marmion wound up rushing for 224 yards to Boylan's 213 while the Titans showed their balance by throwing for 202 to outgain the Cadets overall 415-322.

Boylan answered on its next drive with a more balanced offense. After two first downs through the air, quarterback Frank Cimino called his own number and carried 21 yards off the right end for a touchdown that tied the game at 7.

The offensive fireworks continued on Marmion's next possession, a 9-play, 74-yard march. Lally converted two third-and-short runs, one to the right and the next to the left. Peters' play-action pass netted a 26-yard gain to Carbonara.

Two plays later, Lally again broke tackles while rumbling 16 yards and stretching the ball just past the pylon. Grant Flodin denied the Cadets a 7-point lead by blocking A.J. Friedman's extra-point attempt.

The Cadets' secondary took a blow late in the first quarter when Mitch Loehman limped off the field. After a 10-yard scramble on third-and-10, the Titans capitalized on a blown coverage for a 54-yard touchdown strike from Lamont Toney to Jaxon Meister. The extra point gave the Titans their first lead of the game, 14-13.

Stopping Boylan proved a problem all day. The Titans punted just once.

“It was tough,” linebacker Shares said. “They would go one way, I'd scrap over, something happened, I must have got blocked. It seems they just beat us up front. They deserve credit for winning but I don't think we played our best game.”

Especially when the turnovers started. Lally broke free on the next play from scrimmage but fumbled on a hit by Flodin. Thomas got into the open field, cut back twice to make Marmion miss, and scored on a 24-yard fun for a 21-13 Boylan lead with 6:34 left in the second quarter.

The turnover battle that had worked so well in Marmion's favor this year continued to desert the Cadets when Scoliere let one go. Chris Miller recovered after a scramble, setting up a short 19-yard field that Cimino finished with a 1-yard plunge.

“We're taught to strike,” Miller said. “Go every play as hard as you can. We were fortunate enough to make big plays.”

Down 27-13, Scolierie's 35-yard kick return helped start Marmion on an 11-play, 63-yard drive just before halftime. Lally's 31-yard burst put the Cadets in Boylan territory.

Stopped at fourth down on Boylan's 7-yard line, Thorpe originally sent in Friedman for a 24-yard field goal attempt. But after a Titans timeout, Thorpe put his offense back on the field with three receivers bunched to the left, and Peters got the protection he needed for a 7-yard touchdown pass to Scoliere. Again the extra point was blocked, leaving the Cadets down 27-19 at halftime.

Boylan nearly added to the lead with a 41-yard pass that put them inside Marmion's 10-yard line with 9 seconds to go. Poor clock management and a fumbled snap on a field goal attempt kept the Cadets within 8.

The second half started like the first half went with Marmion unable to hold onto the football. Lally fumbled on the fifth play, and Thomas needed one carry to run 38 yards down the right sideline to make it 34-19.

“They just played a heck of a game and put their helmets on the ball and we couldn't hold on,” Scoliere said.

Marmion's defense made a couple stops in the third quarter. Scoliere showed his versatility on one drive, sacking Toney to put the Titans in a hole and then ending the drive with an interception. The senior had a sack, forced fumble, interception, ran for a touchdown and caught another touchdown.

“There's a lot of things I can hang my hat on today but overall it doesn't matter what I do it matters what the team does,” Scoliere said. “That score shows we didn't play a good game, the ball didn't bounce our way.”

Lally, who set the Class 6A record for tackles (18), came up with a tackle-for-loss on the next drive on third-and-short. That forced Boylan's first punt only to see it lead to the Cadets' fourth turnover when the ball hit off Scoliere's shoulder pads.

A 1-yard plunge by Miller early in the fourth quarter put Boylan ahead 41-19, not the situation any team wants to be in especially a running team like the Cadets.

Peters completed 9 of 21 passes for 98 yards. He moved Marmion into Boylan territory early in the fourth quarter before the first of 2 interceptions. Thony Pirello returned the second 30 yards to end the scoring with 3:04 remaining.

It certainly wasn't an easy day to throw the ball with 37 degree temperature, 12-18 mile per hour winds and a 29 degree windchill announced at kickoff. And it only got colder as the game went on.

“It was probably the coldest game we had all year, it probably had something to do with it,” Peters said. “We practiced in it all week. I don't know how to explain it.”

Hoping to end Saturday as the first Aurora school to win a state title the Cadets instead can take plenty of pride in being the first Marmion team ever to reach state.

“I never thought we would make it this far but we pulled it together,” Carbonara said. “We're a great team and we showed it out here. We made it out here for the first time. I'm proud of everyone on the team.”