Immaculate Conception falls victim to Marian Central
Marian Central coach Ed Brucker simply wanted his team to execute better.
It did, and Immaculate Conception was the victim.
Marian's Jared Koch forced a fumble on the opening kickoff and the Knights' fortunes didn't much improve until Matt Mesnard's shutout-snapping touchdown run late in Marian Central's 54-7 win on Saturday at Lewis Stadium in Elmhurst.
"That's the best team we're going to see all year on our schedule," said IC coach Mike Alberts.
"I thought we would have made a game out of it, at least played them tighter. I mean, they handed it to us and we gave it back to them on a silver platter at the same time. We needed to play an airtight, mistake-free game and we most certainly didn't do it."
Marian quarterback Ben Krol ran in the first Hurricanes score and completed 7 of 12 passes for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Tailback Corey Cavitt - a national age- and weight-group record-holder for bench press (352.5 pounds) and squat (567.5) - followed his line 15 times for 105 yards with touchdowns of 3, 10 and 4 yards.
"They were pushing them far back, 5 yards, so I just had to make one cut at the linebackers," said the 5-foot-9, 195-pound senior. "I was easily getting 5 and 6 yards a carry."
Immaculate Conception (3-2) did itself no favors while trailing 26-0 at halftime, and 40-0 on Cavitt's 4-yard score at 6:29 of the third quarter.
The Knights lost 4 of 5 fumbles, one returned for a touchdown, and threw an interception that also was returned for a 54-0 Hurricanes lead late in the third quarter.
"I thought our defense played very well today," said Brucker, a 1997 state champion at Woodstock and 2006 runner-up at Marian.
"We've been having assignment problems and stuff on defense, remembering what to do, and we did a nice job today."
After Marian Central (3-2) capitalized to start the game a solid Knights drive stalled at the Marian 24-yard line. Cody Kotlow threw slightly ahead of tight end Pat Burke in the end zone.
"I think we need to just come together," Burke said. "We need to look at this film and see what our mistakes were. After we're done with film just put it in the past and move on."
IC next moved the ball successfully early in the fourth quarter, a drive capped by Mesnard's 23-yard touchdown run off an option pitch with 7:30 left. The junior carried 12 times for 72 yards.
"We just have to get back to work," said guard Robert Rivera. "Just practice staying low, practice getting to the mesh, practice reading our keys and all that. Get back to the drawing board and get ready for next week's game."