Benet loses with lackluster effort
There may be no tougher task for a high school football team than calibrating the effort and intensity required for success on senior night.
With a squad's seniors wanting to go out on a high note in front of the home crowd, while fighting the feelings of melancholy as a chapter in their lives ends, the result is often a flat performance.
That's exactly what happened to Benet on Friday night as the Redwings - after honoring 30 departing seniors before the game - lacked any pep once the contest finally began, falling behind 21-0 after only 17 minutes before dropping an eventual 31-12 East Suburban Catholic Conference decision to visiting Marist at Benedictine University.
"On senior night we wanted to come out and get a win, but it just didn't click tonight," said senior running back Mike Wuest.
"We just came out flat, and this is not how any of us wanted it to end."
It might be small consolation, but Wuest did close his home career in fine fashion, notching fourth-quarter scoring runs of 1 and 3 yards and finishing the night with a game-best 105 rushing yards.
By that time, however, Marist (6-2, 4-2) had rolled to a 31-0 lead behind a punishing, multifaceted running game and the otherworldly passing of quarterback Mike Perrish, who threw just one incompletion in 18 attempts on the night.
"We came in wanting to definitely emphasis running the football, it's what we focused on during the week, but Mike has been a very consistent quarterback that's getting better every week," said Marist coach Pat Dunne. "When you ask a quarterback to throw it 18 times and he completes 17, that's pretty good."
Mixing the run and the pass, the Redhawks jumped to a 14-0 lead after one quarter on Perrish's 18-yard pass to Bill Seiler and Joe LaRocco's 4-yard run. Five minutes into the second quarter, Owen Skalitzky snuck in from the one for a 21-0 lead.
The Redwings (2-6, 2-4) could get nothing going on offense in the first half as their first four possessions ended in an interception and three punts, with no first downs and just 7 total yards.
Marist pushed its lead to 24-0 midway through the third quarter on Tim Schmidt's 42-yard field goal and then, after a Benet punt rolled dead at their own 8, the Redhawks needed just 6 plays to go 92 yards with Perrish eventually finding Skalitzky from 7 yards out for a 31-0 lead with 33 seconds left in the third quarter.