Marmion blanks St. Francis

Perhaps Marmion coach Dan Thorpe's main concern entering the season was diminished speed from last year's team.

Friday against St. Francis, Mike Carbonara and Mitch Loehmann proved they are fast enough.

Carbonara shattered a defensive tussle by outrunning pursuit on a 63-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Loehmann capped the Suburban Christian Blue victory with a 70-yard touchdown run and added a 79-yard run that set up a score in Marmion's 22-0 win over the visiting Spartans at Fichtel Field in Aurora.

"We're not a slow team, I wouldn't say," said Carbonara, a senior defensive back. "We were a lot faster last year, but we have a lot of speed and we're real tough. Whatever we lack in speed we make up in intensity and toughness."

St. Francis' Bob Miller carried the ball 22 times for 93 yards, but they were a hard 93 yards.

"Their defense did a great job closing up holes. Their secondary hit hard every play. They executed, they were consistent, they never quit," Miller said.

Marmion (3-0, 1-0) made 5 first downs. There were far more yards from the 16 punts than actual offensive yardage - 534 to 397.

It fit that A.J. Friedman's 72-yard punt to St. Francis' 5-yard line set up Marmion's first score. Forced to punt, St. Francis (2-1, 0-1) stepped on the back line, awarding Marmion a safety and 2-0 lead at 4:37 of the first quarter.

Carbonara stepped in front of St. Francis' Jeff Rutkowski in the right flat for an interception and 63-yard return for a touchdown and an 8-0 halftime lead, escaping the Spartans' Ben Trimble at the end.

"I just picked it off and ran as fast as I could to the house, just praying that I'd make it there," Carbonara said.

Forcing St. Francis into 3-of-22 passing, Marmion capitalized on a Loehmann interception late in the third quarter.

The senior went on the other side of the ball and followed Tyler Heinen and Ryan Glasgow on a 79-yard run to set up Bobby Peters' 6-yard play-action touchdown pass to tight end Ryan Kolka.

St. Francis ran its best offense of the night in the fourth quarter, but a fumble and a pair of penalties ended drives.

"They really shut us down, and every time we got something going it seemed like our mistakes or penalties really hurt us," said St. Francis coach Greg Purnell.

Loehmann put it away on the same sweep play, a 70-yard touchdown, to give him 163 yards on 6 carries.

"Yeah, it was a statement game, first game in conference," Loehmann said.