Marmion sacks Mundelein for first victory

It's never a good thing when a football team punts the ball 11 times.

It's even worse when the same team commits 3 turnovers.

That was the story in Aurora on Friday night for Mundelein, as the Mustangs were held to just 60 yards of total offense as Marmion won its first game of the season, 24-8.

"We played physical defense," Marmion coach Dan Thorpe said. "We played a boring, don't-turn-the-ball over game with great defense and good special teams and those are going to win a lot of your games."

The Cadets totaled 4 sacks.

"We had a lot of good containment," Marmion defensive tackle Andrew Voelsch said. "The defense stepped up. We didn't blitz a lot in the first half. We were focused mentally and didn't give up all game."

Marmion (1-0) jumped ahead 7-0 on Bobby Winkel's 1-yard touchdown run with 4:57 remaining in the opening quarter. The drive was boosted by Nick Scoliere's 32-yard punt return.

The Cadets increased their lead to 13-0 on their next possession when Adam Andras, who would later leave the contest with a shoulder injury, scampered in for a 36-yard score on 4th-and-2 with 1:52 left in the first quarter.

"Offensively we were pretty efficient early in the game," Thorpe said. "We need to learn to keep the intensity when you get up but a win's a win."

Mundelein (0-2) couldn't get anything going offensively, punting the ball away on its first four possessions. Matters got worse on their fifth possession when quarterback Brian Santiago's pass was picked off by junior cornerback Mike Carbonara who took it in from 50 yards out for the score. Will Sterne ran in for the 2-point conversion to give the Cadets a 21-0 advantage with 5:48 to go in the opening half.

"They out-physicaled us most of the game," Mundelein coach Bob Stone said. "We couldn't block them. It wasn't schemes. Their players just did a much better job than we did."

The Mustangs finally lit up the scoreboard for the first time in 2009 on Santiago's keeper with 6:44 remaining. They also made some noise afterward when Bobby Mendel blocked a punt, but Santiago's next pass was intercepted.

Later, the Mustangs forced a fumble, which was recovered by Christian Pedraza, but two plays later T.J. Lally sealed the contest when he picked off an errant Santiago pass.

"Our defense really shut them down after their first two scores so that was good to see," Stone said. "And we got it in end zone, but couldn't get it going after those two turnovers."