St. Viator builds big lead, beats Marian Central

It was a great start to the East Suburban Catholic Conference schedule for host St. Viator when the Lions met Marian Central Friday night at Morris Field in Arlington Heights.

The Hurricanes had a chance to take an early 3-0 lead, but a missed 33-yard field goal attempt set the tone for the rest of the contest as St. Viator's explosive offense built a commanding 28-0 lead at halftime with 252 yards of offense in the first half alone.

The Lions (2-0) led 35-0 early in the third quarter on the fifth touchdown pass of the game by senior quarterback Jack Ziebka (18-for-23, 190 yards passing) before they cruised to a 35-14 victory.

"We knew everyone had to step up on the offensive line and they had a pretty strong defensive line so for the run game we needed everyone to do their job and step up," said Ziebka, whose team had 436 yards of total offense. "Whatever they had (defensively) we had the answer to, we just put it all together. My teammates made some easy reads, and I was really happy with the way we played tonight."

A 43-yard pass from Ziebka to P.J. Scales followed by Sebastian Howarth's extra point made the score 7-0 before a 5-yard TD pass from Ziebka to Daniel Niesman over the middle boosted the lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter.

Then Scales caught a short pass from Ziebka and broke two tackles on the way to a 51-yard TD play and a 21-0 lead set up by Justin Mirski's interception moments earlier.

An interception by St. Viator's Patrick McAndrews also proved to be crucial as the Lions scored again on Scales' 17-yard TD catch in the right corner of the end zone with just 25 seconds left in the first half to continue the dominance of the Hurricanes (1-1).

"Our first half it felt like we were operating on all cylinders, I was very pleased with the reads, the blocking up front, Jack (Ziebka) was making fantastic decisions with the football, and the receivers were making plays. It really was a holistic team effort on offense," said St. Viator coach Dave Archibald, whose team also got 156 yards rushing on 15 carries from Lucas Barisas.

"Lucas is just a consistently tough runner, and I felt like tonight he was seeing lanes and piercing the defense really well. Big tribute to coach (Will) Koukal our defensive coordinator, he prepared the defense very well for what they want to do most on offense. Our defense played with great physicality, and they were ready to stop what Marian Central we thought wanted to adjust."

An 8-yard TD catch by Luke DeJohn on a slant pattern closed out the Lions' scoring before Marian Central scored twice to make the final score more respectable.