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DeKALB – A dizzying late-game surge by the Marmion football team ended with another case of postseason heartburn.
For the second straight season, the Cadets bowed out of the IHSA Class 6A playoffs with a 21-20 defeat, this time to DeKalb in a first-round thriller.
A failed 2-point conversion try and a missed field goal – all in the last minute – derailed an inspired, late-game push for Marmion.
“We had a chance to win it twice,” Marmion coach Dan Thorpe said. “Not too many people get that.”
DeKalb (9-1) was in commanding position after scoring a touchdown to go ahead, 21-7, with 7:26 to play in the fourth quarter – especially considering Marmion’s game-long struggles throwing the football.
But Cadets quarterback John Tate scrambled for a TD on fourth-and-goal from the DeKalb 7-yard line with 3:19 to play, and Connor Hoeft’s PAT cut the Barbs’ lead to 21-14.
That’s when the game turned screwy. Marmion defensive lineman Luke Juriga recovered a fumble at DeKalb’s 23-yard line with 1:49 to play, and Tate soon ran for a first down but was knocked out of the game on the play, on which a personal foul was called on the Barbs.
Tate already was Marmion’s backup QB – Rusty Joyce was unavailable after an injury last week against Montini – meaning running back Jordan Glasgow’s insertion at QB in crunch time was an emergency maneuver. Yet Glasgow promptly hit paydirt on a 5-yard keeper with 50 seconds to play, slicing the deficit to 21-20.
Thorpe opted to attempt a two-point conversion and doubled down on the decision despite a five-yard penalty, a move he second-guessed afterward. Glasgow’s attempted keeper was stopped well short of a go-ahead score.
“I’m not one to go for overtime – we’re going to win it now,” Thorpe said. “But we should have kicked that [PAT] after the 5-yard penalty.”
Marmion (6-4) still wasn’t out of late-game magic as Glasgow pounced on Hoeft’s onside kick, supplying the Cadets possession at DeKalb’s 42-yard line. Glasgow then threw a left-handed duck into the wind that Nathan Traxler camped under for a 27-yard gain to DeKalb’s 15.
“That was not a good throw whatsoever,” Glasgow said with a laugh. “I saw it go up and then I think it completely stopped and went straight down. Thank God for the wind, that’s all I have to say.”
The wind, however, soon became the Cadets’ nemesis. A delay of game penalty – a bugaboo for Marmion at a couple key junctures – backed the Cadets up, and Hoeft ended up needing to boot a 36-yard field goal into the wind for the win. It fell well short, and DeKalb was one knee away from its first playoff win since 1989.
Hoeft, a sophomore, had kicked well for the Cadets this season.
“I had a lot of faith in him,” Glasgow said. “What I was mad about was we couldn’t get it closer for him. I think we had a delay of game penalty, and then we just didn’t have enough time.”
DeKalb advances to a second-round game next week at Hinsdale South.
“That whole second half we just kind of imploded a little bit,” DeKalb coach Matt Weckler said. “Luckily, we got that score that we did. But you know what, [Marmion] came out ready to play [in the second half] and we gave them every opportunity to win the football game, and fortunately for us, we just held on.”
The Cadets were lucky to trail only 14-0 at halftime after an offensive penalty drained the final seconds of the half after a Barbs reception down to the Marmion 1.
Both first half TDs for the Barbs came early as DeKalb scored on each of its first two possessions, the first on a 7-yard touchdown run from Eriq Torrey and the second a 30-yard TD pass from Derek Kyler to a wide-open Rudy Lopez on a fourth-and-5 play.
The dominant pregame storyline was the health of Barbs running back and Illinois recruit Dre Brown, and Brown hurt the Cadets with 169 rushing yards on 28 carries. But the Cadets’ defense stiffened considerably as the game wore on.
“I think we played like every down was our last,” Marmion linebacker Kyle Jordan said. “I know I did. I think we desired it. We saw what was going wrong on those first two drives and we picked it up.”
Glasgow (10 carries for 58 yards) became a potent complement to bruising fullback Lucas Warren (11 carries for 63 yards) in the second half. A DeKalb resident, Glasgow lives about a mile from the Barbs’ stadium and knows a handful of DeKalb players well.
“There was some jawing … just comments like ‘You’re locked down,’ ” Glasgow said. “ … That was in the first half and obviously I didn’t have any impact in the first half, I felt. I came out in the second half and obviously playing against people I know and the team is down and I’m a senior and I’m a captain, and I needed to make a play. I felt I made one or two plays that put the team in good position.”
Marmion dropped a second-round 6A game, 21-20, to Prairie Ridge last season.
DEKALB 21, MARMION 20
M – 0 0 7 13 – 20
D – 14 0 0 7 – 21
HOW THEY SCORED
First quarter
D – Torrey 7 run (Kyler kick), 7:35
D – Lopez 30 pass from Kyler (Kyler kick), 2:53
Third quarter
M – Tate 28 run (Hoeft kick), 2:27
Fourth quarter
D – Brown 3 run (Kyler kick), 7:26
M – Tate 7 run (Hoeft kick), 3:19
M – Glasgow 5 run (conversion run failed), 0:50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Marmion: Traxler 5-31, Warren 11-63, Glasgow 10-58, Tate 11-64, Ferraro 1-0. Totals: 38-216. DeKalb: Jackson 5-47, Torrey 5-13, Brown 28-169, Kyler 11-35. Totals: 49-264
PASSING – Marmion: Tate 3-8-0-47, Glasgow 1-1-0-27. Totals: 4-9-0-74. DeKalb: Kyler 8-12-0-111.
RECEIVING – Marmion: Traxler 2-31, Bacorn 1-31, Warren 1-9. Totals: 4-74. DeKalb: Ross 3-30, Lopez 2-49, Torrey 2-17, Jackson 1-15. Totals: 8-111.
TOTAL OFFENSE – Marmion 290, DeKalb 375