Marion 14, Immaculate Conception 0
Plenty of excuses were in place for Immaculate Conception on Saturday afternoon.
Starting quarterback Kevin Koch was on the sidelines with crutches and a cast on his broken left ankle, and running back/linebacker Nick DiBrito also was part of a deep injury list holding back the Knights. To make matters worse, Class 5A runner-up Marian Central was the opponent at Elmhurst College.
But IC (1-2, 0-1 Suburban Catholic Conference) did not make things easy for the Hurricanes (3-0, 1-0), battling them tough for four quarters before coming up on the short end of a 14-0 score. Sophomore Will Cronin made his debut at quarterback in place of Koch and orchestrated some nice drives against Marian Central, but a fumble, an interception and an errant pitch that went for minus-14 yards hurt the Knights' chances of scoring against the visitors.
After a scoreless first quarter the Hurricanes capped off a 61-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Jonathan Budmayr to Karsten Hamilton-Smith for a 7-0 lead with 9:01 left in the first half. Marian Central added a 22-yard TD pass from backup quarterback Andrew Stochl to Adam Olson in the third quarter to close out the game's scoring, but nothing came easily against a Knights defense led by linebacker Antonio Taylor.
Taylor said his team was inspired to play well for the cast of injured players relegated to watching from the sidelines. He added that last year's one-sided win by the Hurricanes also was fresh in his mind.
"We battled with the best of the best," said Harris, who recorded 4 tackles for loss. "They blew us out last year, so we came in with a chip on our shoulders. We dedicated this game for everyone on the sidelines who deserved to be on the field. We knew we needed to step up."
With Jonathan Ellis gaining 87 tough yards on 21 carries and Cronin completing 5 passes for 34 yards in his debut, the Knights were able to mount a couple of sustained drives but couldn't find paydirt.
IC's first two drives ended when short fourth-down attempts came up shy, then the third drive was halted when Cronin's hurried throw was picked off. The Knights' Brendan Ryan answered with an interception of his own on the next play, but Marian Central clung to its 7-0 lead at the half.
"You want to try and find positives and the positive is we were faced with a lot of adversity and we could have packed it in, especially after they got the first touchdown," IC coach Bill Schmidt said. "But we battled them. We just have to do a better job of executing."
Marian Central coach Ed Brucker, who lost Budmayr to a hamstring injury late in the first half, felt his team may have taken the Knights lightly once they learned that Koch would not be returning from last week's ankle injury.
"We found out their quarterback was out and so were a couple other kids," Brucker said. "Plus it's a hot Saturday.
"It could have been a number of things, but we've got to go on all cylinders. They missed their quarterback. If we played like this and they had their quarterback, it might have been different."