Marquette visits Streator for friendly, fun practice, 7-on-7

STREATOR – There are plenty of adjectives fit to describe most summer football practices, but fun and friendly aren’t usually among them.

Monday’s joint practice/7-on-7 at the Streator High School Athletic Fields, however, was both, as the Marquette Academy Crusaders visited their rivals 16 miles down Route 23 for group stretches, competitive 40-yard dashes and passing scrimmages for the varsity and the JV.

“It’s a good day to get out and compete and have some fun,” Crusaders coach Tom Jobst said. “We get along very well with [the Streator] guys. They did a nice job, we did a nice job.

“We start camp next week, our two-week camp, and we’ll get our running game in, just our basic stuff, and we’ll go from there.”

The common link between the programs – aside from their close proximity – is Ken Carlson, a teacher and boys track coach at Streator and also a Marquette football assistant coach and Jobst’s nephew.

“One of the things working with Coach Carlson is we’re able to set this great event up, and we get the opportunity to work on our PRs [personal records] and speed, which both programs believe in,” Bulldogs head coach Kyle Tutt said.

“We’re also giving our guys the chance to throw the ball around a little. We both want to run the ball well. We like to pass maybe a little bit more than they do, but they have a great defense, so it’s a great opportunity for two teams who aren’t going to see each other [during the season] to compete at a high level in the summer.”

As for Monday’s joint session, both teams showed some big-play potential. Marquette perhaps a little more so behind an impressive performance from quarterback Alex Graham.

After getting intercepted by his Streator counterpart, Christian Benning, on the Crusaders’ first offensive possession, Graham was almost automatic. That included hitting on four long touchdown throws – the first to Griffen Walker to open the night’s scoring, then later on three more all hauled in by No. 1 weapon and reigning The Times Football Player of the Year, Tom Durdan.

“We’ve been playing together since freshman year, and he’s always been my go-to. Last year it really kind of exploded,” Graham said.

“It’s the extra stuff, too. Just going out during the summer, ‘Hey, you wanna go out on the field and throw?’ Just getting used to what he does, him getting used to what I do, and then bring it out on the field.”

The Bulldogs provided some fireworks of their own.

Benning connected on three long strikes in addition to a couple shorter scores, his two most impressive throws going to Jeremiah Brown for a pair of touchdowns. The center of attention, speedy RB/WR Aneefy Ford, got in on the fun with a tough grab in traffic of a long Benning heave late in the scrimmage.

The matchup of Ford and Marquette burner Caden Eller – first on the track for the 40-yard dash where Ford bested Eller by half a step, then on the field where the two often matched up and Eller broke up a would-be long completion on a wheel route – was arguably the day’s highlight.

“He’s come down [to Streator] a few times, and we’ve worked out together,” Ford said. “The first day he came down he got me, but I got mine the next time. It’s a good matchup.”

All said, both coaches felt it was a day that gave their teams some much-needed fun and competition as the offseason begins to transform into the preseason.

“This is only our fourth day actually doing stuff, so we feel really comfortable with where we are and what we’re doing,” Tutt said. “We know Ottawa Marquette is a really refined team with a lot of guys coming back, and we’re going to be really young this year, but we were able to score.

“We turned the ball over, which is something we definitely want to eliminate, but we did a really good job playing our game tonight and doing what we plan to do this year.”