Marmion rolls past South Elgin
New lights towered over Marmion's Fichtel Field Friday night, but Cadets senior Colin Hirsch provided the real electricity.
Hirsch stepped in front of a potential South Elgin touchdown late in the third quarter and returned it 99 yards for a score at the other end. That, combined with a relentless Marmion rushing attack, highlighted a 33-7 season-opening victory.
"Coach always tells me to read the tight end," Hirsch said. "I watched the quarterback, read his eyes, and picked it off. I kept looking back, thinking, 'Please don't catch me.' "
They didn't. Hirsch snared the fourth-down pass intended for Storm receiver Joshua Smith, who finished with five catches for 68 yards, and had nothing but green in front of him. His team had led just 19-7 at the time, so a South Elgin touchdown then would have made it too close for comfort.
Marmion coach Dan Thorpe said Hirsch deserved such a big moment. Thorpe noted that Hirsch, who lives in Genoa, drove 45 minutes every day over the summer so that he could lift weights at Marmion with his teammates.
"Good things happen to people who work hard," Thorpe said.
The excitement of that play and the win provided the perfect counterpart to the school's first game under its new illumination. Marmion played one night game under temporary lights late last season, and that had been the school's first home night game since the 1960s.
The home crowd responded by packing the stands and cheering enthusiastically.
"It was awesome," Hirsch said. "All my friends came out. The stands were full. It's a great feeling."
The Cadets weren't without concerns. They took 13 penalties for 130 total yards, many of them on holding calls. Thorpe said he'll be working with his team to move their feet more this week, as well as working on conditioning.
Marmion had bolted to a 19-0 lead in the first quarter. Sean Fichtel started things with a 42-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Ricky Bird less than four minutes into the game, on a drive that started after a South Elgin fumble turnover.
Matt Pircon and Bobby Winkel - who finished with 128 yards rushing - then each scored on 1-yard runs on the next two drives.
But then penalties bogged down the ensuing drives, and a second-quarter South Elgin score from Patrick Rae to Shawn Ryan cut the lead to 19-7.
The score remained there as the Storm marched down the field on a 14-play drive in the third quarter. They made it to the Marmion 1-yard line before a strong defensive stand stopped a run on third down.
Storm coach Dale Schabert decided to go for it, but Hirsch foiled his plans.
"You've got to have confidence in your kids to go get that," Schabert said of the fourth-down play. "If they make it, you're jumping up and down. We just put the ball in the wrong place."
Schabert noted that he has a young team this year with many new starters, so he was pleased with the way they stayed tough all game against a much bigger Marmion team.
Rae put up big numbers through the air, too, finishing 18 of 37 for 205 yards and just the one interception. "We were fired up," Schabert said. "We fought all night long."
St. Francis 40, Yorkville 0: St. Francis could not have dreamt up a better way to open the new season under its new set of lights Friday night.
The Spartans Ryan O'Donnell started the game and the season off in spectacular fashion with a 90-yard touchdown that seemed to knock visiting Yorkville out of whack for the rest of the night. O'Donnell's quick strike was only the beginning for a St. Francis team that stormed ahead 40-0 in the first half and coasted to a season-opening victory by that same score as the clock ran continuously throughout the second half of Friday's game in Wheaton.
"We've been working real hard this summer and we were real excited to get a good start to the year," said O'Donnell, who helped accomplish that mission. "We wanted to show that St. Francis is here to play."
O'Donnell's teammate, senior running back Mark Kachmer, also was more than ready to play against the Foxes. After Yorkville's first possession ended in a Will Parker punt, Kachmer broke off a 43-yard touchdown run on St. Francis' second play from scrimmage for a 14-0 lead just over 2 minutes into the contest. It was the first of 3 long TD runs by Kachmer, who piled up 180 yards and 3 scores on just 5 carries in the first half.
"This is the perfect night," the 6-foot, 190-pound Kachmer said. "We open under the lights and we have a big crowd. We hope to get this every time."
Playing a rugged schedule against a number of powerful Suburban Catholic Conference foes may not provide too many more blowout wins for the Spartans, but Yorkville coach James Still was certainly impressed.
"St. Francis came out and executed," Still said. "That team is going to do alright. Obviously I didn't have these young men ready for this battle, but that's not to take anything away from the men in white and blue. They came out here with a mission and executed it."
Joseph Pfeiffer had big plays on both sides of the ball as the hosts increased their lead to 21-0 in the first quarter. First Pfeiffer recovered a fumble by the Foxes at the Yorkville 18, then the defensive end-tight caught a TD pass from senior QB Jeff Reckards on the very next play.
It was the Spartans defense that played the biggest role in the smiles displayed by the Spartans' coaching staff. St. Francis put up plenty of points last fall, but often allowed even more. Against Yorkville's spread offense Friday, St. Francis' defense pressured Foxes quarterback Luke Parece (13-for-27, 73 yards) heavily.