Marmion throttles Aurora Christian
For someone who still might not quite be 100 percent, Marmion junior running back Jordan Glasgow has a funny way of showing it.
Glasgow shredded Aurora Christian’s defense for a pair of rushing touchdowns and another touchdown reception — all in the first half — sending the Cadets to a 21-point halftime lead on their way to a convincing 35-14 victory over the two-time defending Class 3A state champs.
Sidelined with an ankle injury to start the year, Glasgow received a cortisone injection before the Cadets’ Week 3 game. He opened the scoring Friday with a 63-yard touchdown run.
“It (the ankle) feels OK now but the cortisone injection really made me ready to play right away,” said Glasgow, who finished with 123 yards on 16 carries and added another 38 yards receiving.
“After a loss like Montini (in Week 5) this really sets us back on track. Coming back and winning against another team we have a pretty big rivalry with that kind of shows us we can be very good and win all our games in the regular season and go in the playoffs and try to make something happen.”
Marmion (5-1, 3-1 in the Suburban Christian Blue) overcame the loss of center Andy Matthews with a knee injury early in the game. Luke Juriga shifted from guard to center, and Jimmy Rogers entered the game to join linemen Oscar Garza, Zach Siwiec and Tim Clohecy in opening the holes for Glasgow.
They also gave quarterback Brock Krueger time to hurt Aurora Christian (5-1, 3-1) through the air. He completed 7 of 9 passes for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns. Krueger also added a 7-yard rushing touchdown to cap the scoring.
“Brock throws a nice ball when he has time,” Marmion coach Dan Thorpe said. “I really liked his composure in there. The O-line gave him time. We asked the kids to be physical all week.”
The outcome was a near opposite final of the Eagles’ 38-14 win last year at Marmion. Aurora Christian fell behind 14-0 after one quarter and never got its highflying offense in gear.
Quarterback Austin Bray completed 8 of his first 10 passes but for just 42 yards. The junior couldn’t get much going downfield all game, finishing 12 of 23 for 95 yards with an interception — just 4.1 yards per attempt.
“Offensively we were just out of sync,” Eagles coach Don Beebe said. “I thought we were flat.”
Even worse, Bray left the game with what Beebe said is a separated shoulder that will sideline him until at least the first week of playoffs. Freshman Ben Weerts finished the game for the Eagles who also have injuries to several other backup quarterbacks.
The outcome was sealed by that point. After Glasgow’s first score, the Cadets’ Joe Talbot and Josh Meyers led a host of tacklers to stuff Legend Smith on a 4th-down run.
Marmion took advantage of the short field with Glasgow punching the ball in from a yard out for a 14-0 lead with 19 seconds left in the first quarter.
Smith, who finished with 82 rushing yards on 10 carries, broke a 37-yard run to key a drive that ended with a 6-yard Bray touchdown pass to Brandon Walgren, cutting Marmion’s lead to 14-6.
The Cadets responded with two more touchdowns to go into halftime up 28-6. Glasgow had the first on a 7-yard reception from Krueger after Tyler Eberth’s interception.
Play-action enabled Krueger to find Enzo Olabi wide open behind the Eagles defense for a 42-yard touchdown. By halftime the Cadets had outgained the Eagles 230 yards to 104 and held Aurora Christian to 4 first downs.
“We got our butts handed to us, that’s what I saw. We couldn’t tackle for the first half,” Beebe said. “Last week was a big emotional win. We played a great football game against St. Francis. We didn’t match that emotion. You could see it pregame. We didn’t have that ‘it’ factor.”
The Eagles did have two chances to get back in the game in the second half.
They recovered an onside kick to open the half. Beebe turned to Walgren at quarterback for a Wildcat look, and Aurora Christian quickly found itself with first-and-goal after Walgren’s 41-yard run.
Smith ran into the end zone from 9 yards out only to see the play called back by a penalty. Aurora Christian went backward from there, and the drive stalled on 4th-and-goal from the 31.
Noah Roberts returned a punt 52 yards for a touchdown that gave the Eagles one more spark late in the third quarter. Aurora Christian drove inside Marmion’s 20 early in the fourth quarter with a chance to make it a one-score game before once again getting in a fourth-and-long — the Eagles converted just 2 of 9 third downs and were 0-for-3 on fourth.
The Cadets’ final fourth-down stop was the most painful, as Nick Ferraro broke free to sack Bray, forcing a fumble Ferraro recovered. The hit also knocked Bray out of the game — and apparently out of the rest of the regular season.
“Our defense holding that explosive offense like that, they had to earn their running yards and we didn’t give up any deep balls,” Thorpe said. “We got some pressure. Our little peanuts (defensive linemen), Nick Ferraro, Malcolm Confer, Talbot, Paul Khoury we were getting in there.”
After Ferraro’s fumble recovery, Marmion drove 69 yards on the ensuing drive for its final touchdown.
“That was a tremendous statement drive,” Thorpe said. “They (the Eagles) have a lot of guys going both ways. Second quarter, we had to take advantage. Our numbers were definitely an advantage. We tired them out a little bit.”