Aurora Central stuns Marmion

Aurora Central Catholic has eight players who play on both sides of the football on a regular basis, and that looked like it was going to be a factor in the second half of its match up with Suburban Catholic Conference rival Marmion.

After putting together two sustained drives of more than seven minutes each to jump out to a first-half lead, the Chargers gave up 18 unanswered points to open the second half to surrender the lead. All the momentum seemed to be with the Cadets, but ACC senior Kyle Edwards changed that in a flash.

Edwards picked up a squib kick at the 20-yard line and went straight up the field for an 80-yard TD that tied the game and rejuvenated the Chargers. ACC came up with a big defensive stop, then put together one last drive that quarterback Mike Adams finished off with a 1-yard sneak to give ACC the 27-21 victory.

"When they took the lead we knew we still had a chance to win," Adams said. "The kick return just gave all the momentum to us, and we knew we weren't going to lose then. We stepped it up, we gave it our all."

"I was just trying to get some positive yardage and hoping for the best," Edwards said of his big play. "Everyone was ecstatic; it was a huge momentum boost."

Edwards also had 2 TD receptions in the first half.

"He saw a seam, we blocked hard, they missed a couple tackles and boom. Edwards has good speed," said ACC coach Mike Curry. "Kyle Edwards had a (heck) of a game. What can you say? He had 3 touchdowns, kicked 3 extra points and ran the kickoff back."

ACC (2-6, 2-4) had a big stop early in the game after turning the ball over in its own half of the field on the game's first possession. The Chargers kept Marmion (4-4, 2-4) out of the end zone and held the Cadets to a 30-yard field goal by Alex Picini.

The Chargers then went on a 17-play, 80-yard TD drive that ate up the last eight minutes of the first quarter. Quarterback Mike Adams did most of the damage with his legs, converting several third downs that kept the chains moving and the clock running.

Adams found Edwards over the middle for a 21-yard TD that gave the Chargers the lead.

ACC used the same basic blueprint of running Adams or hitting Edwards with wide receiver screens to duplicate that effort with an 82-yard drive that again used up the last seven minutes of the quarter. It culminated in a 6-yard TD pass from Adams to Edwards on fourth-and-goal, sending the Chargers into the locker room with a 14-3 lead.

"The plan was to keep the ball out of their hands. If we snap the ball more we had a chance," said Curry, whose team ran more than twice as many plays as the Cadets in the first half. "We took what they gave us, they gave us some of the short stuff early, just enough so we could get first downs."

"I give a lot of credit to our defense for keeping them off the field and holding them to three-and-outs," said Adams, who finished with 91 yards rushing and 178 yards passing. "On offense we just kept running the ball on them, our line kept pushing them back, and we just kept going."

Marmion opened the second half with a drive that again ended with a Picini field goal. After Manny Juarez picked off Adams and returned it to the Chargers' 41, the Cadets featured running back Bobby Winkel on a drive that resulted in a 2-yard TD run for Winkel. After a successful 2-point conversion, the game was tied at 14.

ACC was forced to punt on its next possession, and Marmion put together its own long drive going 86 yards in four minutes. This time Winkel capped it with a 7-yard TD run to give the Cadets a short-lived 21-14 lead.

"Mike Adams ran hard. When the game was on the line of the fourth quarter he did a (heck) of a job," Curry said. "This is our biggest win in a long time."

"The kickoff return took a lot of wind out of the kids," said Marmion coach Don Thorpe. "We have to be able to go out there after that. We just didn't get it done. We have great respect for them.

"We got beat. We didn't really do much to hurt ourselves outside of giving up the kickoff return. That is why I'm disappointed. This is a 'throw out the record you should be jacked up to play your best friend from across the street' game, and we weren't."