Marmion wins again on Lally's late TD

Marmion junior T.J. Lally redeemed himself.

After his fourth-quarter fumble led to Chicago Christian's go-ahead touchdown with 2:02 left to play, Lally scored the game-winner on a 2-yard run to give Marmion a 23-20 win in Palos Heights.

Marmion improved to 7-1 in the Suburban Christian Conference crossover game. Chicago Christian fell to 4-4.

Lally ran for 83 yards on 15 carries, with Bobby Winkel running for 44 yards on 12 carries.

The Cadets opened the scoring on a 55-yard pass to Matt Pircon from Bobby Peters. Nick Scoliere added a 50-yard touchdown run to give Marmon a 13-7 lead after the first quarter. Scoliere also caught a 30-yard pass from Peters on Marmion's final drive.

Sophomore A.J. Friedman booted a 35-yard field goal for a 16-7 Cadets lead before Chicago Christian struck twice for the 20-16 lead, setting up Lally's heroics.

Glenbard South 49, Rochelle 34: Trace Wanless had touchdown runs of 22 and 42 yards, Nick Slezak had scoring runs of 4 and 69 yards and Connor Douglas caught a TD pass and ran for another score in the Raiders' Western Sun Conference win at Rochelle.

The win keeps the Raiders (6-2, 5-1) in a tie for first place in the conference with Geneva, which defeated co-leader Kaneland 27-24 in overtime.

The win also guarantees a playoff spot for the Raiders.

The Raiders led 28-14 at halftime, but Rochelle scored the first touchdown of the second half. The Raiders bounced back with Douglas' TD reception from Wanless, then Slezak put the game out of reach when he scored on a fourth-and-1 play from the Raiders' 31-yard line.

The Raiders are at Sycamore next Friday.

Waubonsie Valley 36, Lake Park 14: It's pretty basic. Waubonsie Valley holds onto the ball, it wins.

Add a few mistakes from the other team and it's even easier.

Waubonsie Valley scored 23 points off 4 Lake Park turnovers to gain playoff eligibility and deal the Lancers their first loss in the Upstate Eight Conference, 36-14 on Friday in Roselle.

"We've got to take care of the ball and just not give it up, and when we do that our offense can go and score just like we did," said receiver-kicker Scott Kuehn, who caught 2 second-quarter touchdown passes within two minutes, the second after teammate Derek Mickelson's interception. "We got 5 touchdowns there. When we take care of the football we can put it in the end zone."

Lake Park (6-2, 5-1), which dropped a game back of 6-0 St. Charles East in the Upstate Eight Conference race, marched downfield methodically, impressively, scoring on Artie Monaco's 13-yard run to cap a 13-play, 75-yard opening drive.

Waubonsie Valley ran the same type of series, taking 12 plays to score on Kuehn's first touchdown catch, a 6-yard fade from Kenny Clay, though the Lancers led 7-6 when the kick failed.

Lake Park responded after Kuehn's second touchdown catch, a 28-yarder. Larry Nawrot completed a 68-yard pass to Jake McNamara to set up Monaco's second touchdown run, a 9-yard draw with 4:31 before halftime. That pulled the Lancers even at 14-14 with Waubonsie Valley (5-3, 4-2).

It was all Warriors from there, starting with linebacker Rickey Simpson's touchdown by falling on a long punt snap that rolled into Lake Park's end zone. Waubonsie led 20-14 at halftime.

"Ecstasy on the gridiron," said Simpson, a key to the Warriors' defense on Friday along with Owen Saldana and Cory Connolly.

"We really helped our defense out and they really helped us out, especially by getting that big touchdown," said Clay, 12 of 16 passing for 102 yards.

The Warriors continued to roll when Jalen Love's fumble recovery led to Mark Szott's leaping, 1-handed touchdown grab, the only scoring in the third quarter. On the ensuing kickoff Devon Morgan recovered a Lancers fumble and Kuehn promptly booted a 41-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Waubonsie salted the game away on its next possession, a 10-play drive capped by Clay's 8-yard touchdown run.

"We didn't help ourselves, but they beat us," said Lake Park coach Andy Livingston. "They played a good game. You've got to give credit where credit's due. They came out in the second half, we couldn't find an answer."

- Dave Oberhelman

Cross country

DVC meet: More than 20 minutes after winning the DuPage Valley Conference girls cross country championship, Naperville Central's Amanda Fox still looked completely spent.

Maybe it was just the pounding headache or maybe it was the effort needed to pull away from a pretty strong field.

"It just dragged on a little more, because I pushed it harder and more to the end, and it took more out of me," a still breathless Fox said. "That's OK."

The sophomore won in "iffy" 17:47.0, seven seconds better than last year's winner, Lauren Mordini of WW South. The Tigers' McKenna Kiple was third at 18:06.4, with Naperville North's Emily Smith and Jamie Schertz next across the line.

"I tried to go out a little bit faster, because last time I got a little bit stuck at the beginning. I tried not to slow down. I stretched at the beginning and then tried to pull away more at the end."

Naperville North's Tyler Jermann won the boys race in 14:53.7. Wheaton North's Jake and James Waterman placed second and fourth, respectively, with Naperville North's Bob Guthrie breaking them up in third place.

"I just took it out a little bit easier," Jermann said, "and kept it smooth the whole way. It felt awesome."

Jermann was in a pack of about eight for the first mile, then he pulled away.

"I was pretty much alone for the rest," he said.

Wheaton Warrenville South won both the boys and girls races. The Tigers girls outscored Naperville North 35-41, with Naperville Central third at 58 points. West Aurora (132), Wheaton North (142) were next. Maggie Angst placed 10th in 18:37 to lead Glenbard East to sixth place, with West Chicago seventh at 188 and Glenbard North finishing with 218.

On the boys side the Tigers scored 51 points to outlast cross-town rival Wheaton North, which had 61. Naperville North placed third with 74 points, followed by Glenbard East at 90.

West Aurora (141), Naperville Central (156), West Chicago (164) and Glenbard North (171) rounded out the field.