Seneca perseveres, pulls away from Marquette for 28-6 win

OTTAWA – Fate is going to have to work a little harder if it expects to slow down the Seneca football team, because the roadblocks it’s throwing up are not doing the job.

The AP Class 2A No. 3-ranked Fighting Irish, coming off a bye week because of a forfeit by Walther Christian, had its quarterback and star defender Nathan Grant out with injury as they went on the road to face Marquette, one of two other Chicagoland Prairie Conference unbeatens.

Those proved hardly more than speed bumps, as Seneca rebounded from an initial slap in the face – the Crusaders marching 85 yards to a touchdown on the game’s opening possession – by calmly and slowly taking back control over the next three quarters. Seneca came away with a solid 28-6 victory at Gould Stadium on Friday night.

Asher Hamby rushed 13 times for 184 yards and both of the game’s second-half touchdowns, while Paxton Giertz filled in admirably for Grant under center with 31 rushing yards and a 33-yard TD pass to Kysen Klinker to pace the Irish, now 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the league.

“We all came out nervous, a big rivalry game, a lot of people in the stands,” Hamby said. “They got us at first, but we just realized that we had to come together after that first quarter. We didn’t want to lose. We knew we needed this one against a rival that wants to beat us as much as we want to beat them, but we just didn’t want to lose.”

Marquette’s running back trio of Jacob Smith (15 carries, 59 yards), Payton Gutierrez (12-52) and Pete McGrath (10-47), and a defense that kept Seneca’s average of 388 rushing yards per game to 129 yards in the opening half, kept it close into the third period.

But after the wind helped knock down a 35-yard field goal try by Sam Mitre, Hamby’s two scores and an outstanding effort in the defensive line helped drop the Cru to 5-2, 4-1 in the conference.

“First of all, Marquette is a heckuva program,” Seneca coach Terry Maxwell said. “Coach Jobst does a great job with them. They’re so fundamentally sound and what they run is so crisp and fast and downhill that it’s hard to mimic in practice, and tonight they did a great job of sticking it to us right away.

“But like I told our kids: In this game, you get knocked down, that happens, especially against a good team like them, but you can’t stay down and that’s what we did. We came out a little flat after the week off, but we fought back. I’m very proud of how we handled that adversity, plus being without Nathan, a huge part of our team as a player and leader. A lot of guys really stepped up for us tonight.”

The Crusaders initial drive, helped in large part by a 26-yard pass from Anthony Couch to McGrath and a 15-yard run by Smith, was capped by McGrath’s 5-yard burst to the end zone for a 6-0 edge.

However, Hamby’s 17-yard return of a Marquette punt set up the Irish at the Cru 37. A play later, Giertz connected with Klinker for 33 yards and the tying score.

The Irish tacked on the go-ahead score on a 4-yard run by Nick Grant, set up by a huge 56-yard breakaway by Hamby on the previous play.

Marquette nearly stole the momentum back by accident when Mitre’s shanked second-half kickoff was recovered by Grant Dose at the Irish 45. But 10 plays later, Mitre’s 35-yard FG attempt into the wind was off the mark.

Seneca responded to the dodged bullet behind Hamby, who broke free for a 47-yard burst that led to his own 1-yard plunge later in the third period.

Another Marquette three-and-out and another Hamby score, this time from 9 yards away, locked up the win.

“That’s a very good team we played tonight, but I think I found out we’re not too bad either,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said with a smile. “This is the most physical team we’ve played, and they execute their offense perfectly. Their line is not only strong and sizable, but they move well and they know what they’re doing. … Seneca dug in and met our challenge, which is what a good team does. They didn’t collapse, even though they had some problems, too.

“Field position-wise, we were behind the eight ball on almost every possession, so I’m really proud of our kids. They played a great game and so did Seneca. Both teams came away from this one with reason to be proud.”