AURORA – Even with a cursory look at the Aurora Christian football roster, one couldn’t help but notice that the transfer of three-year starter Max Bray to St. Bede Academy over the summer left the Eagles with a gaping hole at quarterback.
However, on opening night of the 2023 season against visiting Marquette, that void was filled by not one, but two capable newcomers to the position.
Jalen Carter got the start and on the night completed 8 of 12 passes for 163 yards and three touchdowns, while Asa Johnson played a couple of series throughout and connected on 4 of 5 for 32 yards and a score to lead the Eagles to a 42-0 victory over the Crusaders.
Of those passes, Owen Hampton collected 7 catches for 102 yards and three scores and Johnson, at wideout when not taking snaps, snared 4 catches for 102 and a touchdowns, including an 81-yarder on just the second play of the game to set the tone for the Eagles.
“They’re new, but they’re wonderful quarterbacks who work their tails off. They’re the kind of guy you want on your team,” Hampton said of the two signal-callers. “Jalen can do more things, move around more and is more athletic, but Asa is more a true quarterback, a classic pocket passer. But they both know what they’re doing out there and trust where we’re going to be.
“I couldn’t be happier having those two at quarterback. They throw the ball right where it needs to be every time.”
Drew Kegebein added 74 yards and a TD on 11 carries, while the defense limited Marquette’s usually potent wing-T attack to just 37 rushing yards on 37 attempts and to 66 total yards on the night. But the night belonged to the quarterbacks, who together accounted for 221 of the Eagles’ 328 yards of total offense.
“We’re got a couple of really special kids,” Aurora Christian coach David Beebe said of his QB tandem. “Jalen is a special athlete that can do a lot of special things for us and is a great quarterback, and Asa came in and we didn’t miss a beat, threw a touchdown pass. I’m just super proud of both of them. It helps them to have a player like Owen to throw to as well.
“Last year’s game (Marquette 26-20 in Ottawa) when we led the whole way and they came back at the end and beat us, that hurt us and set the tone for the whole season. … It was on our minds all off-season, so this year, we wanted to reset that tone.”
That tone came on the 81-yard quick-slant TD from Carter to Johnson just 48 seconds into the contest. Later in the opening quarter, Carter found Hampton for an 18-yard score that, with the second of six PAT kicks by Zach Zappia, made it 14-0.
Johnson on the next series found Hampton for his only TD, a 4-yarder to start the second period. A fumbled punt return by Marquette set up the final score of the half, a 3-yard Carter to Hampton pass, for a 28-0 margin.
Kegebein broke a 20-yard run for the only score of the third quarter, then Sal Delgado put the finishing touches on the win by blocking a Charlie Mullen punt and returning it 24 yards to paydirt.
The lone highlight for Marquette was the hard running of Grant Dose, who totaled 32 yards on nine carries. Payton Gutierrez added 17 yards on seven tries and Jacob Smith 15 on eight.
Sophomore quarterback Anthony Couch was running for his life most of the night, finished 4 of 10 for 29 yards and was sacked four times. He finished with minus-27 yards on eight attempts.
The last time the Crusaders were victims of a running clock was in 2021 in a 55-14 playoff loss to Fulton.
“It was a tough night for us,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said. “Christian is a very good team, with very good size. They’re physical, they’re quick, and they have a whale of a passing game, and with two quarterbacks, one as good as the other. … I’m proud of the way the kids hung in there and played hard, but we were just overmatched tonight.
“We hoped for better, but this is where we’re at right now and we’ll go from here. All we can do is hope that this game pays off for us later in the year, this experience.”