Becker, Marmion march to victory at Mundelein

Marmion Academy junior Garret Becker has a goal is to play football for West Point after he graduates.

He might have taken a major step in achieving that goal by rushing for 126 yards on 11 carries at Mundelein Friday night.

With Marmion down 6-3 at halftime, Becker gave his team the lead as he ran in the winning touchdown from 30 yards out, as the Cadets held on to beat host Mundelein 13-6 in a nonconference football game.

In the first quarter, he fumbled the ball away to Mundelein.

"In the second quarter I had to redeem myself," Becker said. "The touchdown run helped, and then I ran my butt off the rest of the game.

"On my touchdown run, we knew the play was going to be either a 5-yard loss or a touchdown," added Becker, whose TD was first of the season.

Mundelein scored its lone touchdown on senior running back Pablo Mata's 48-yard run with 8:42 left in the second quarter.

He didn't play in the Mustangs' season opener.

"I was disappointed that I couldn't play last week," Mata said. "I was really hungry to score that touchdown and I saw that hole."

Both teams had their share of turnovers, as Marmion had 4 and Mundelein had 3, including an interception.

"We needed our defense to win for us," Marmion coach Dan Thorpe said. "I thought Mundelein ran into our inside guys and got support off the flank. I'm disappointed with the turnovers, but not the effort."

A.J. Friedman supplied the first score with a 26-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

He capped the scoring with a 19-yard field goal with 2:30 left in the fourth.

Mundelein coach Bob Stone was happy with the way his defense played but not the offense.

"The keys to the game were us trying to control (Marmion) and us trying to control the football," said Stone, whose Mustangs fell to 0-2. "We just have to shorten the game up as much as possible and, in the end, we couldn't shorten it enough. Plus, we have to be able to move the ball more."