1A: Run-heavy Dakota rules the clock, tops Marquette

DAKOTA – The frustration could easily be read on the muddy, rain-dampened faces of the Marquette Crusaders as they paced the mucky sideline waiting for their next chance against a tough, physical Dakota defense.

But that next chance never came.

After the Indians scored 22 straight points in the second quarter to take a commanding lead in their 1A second-round playoff game on a wet, extremely windy Saturday afternoon, Marquette came to life. It finished the half with a pair of scores in the final 72 seconds to get back in it and seemed to have all the momentum with only two quarters to play.

That’s when Dakota took the air out of the balloon.

The Crusaders chewed up the first 8:10 of the third quarter with a drive that died at the Indians’ 14. Then, after adding an insurance score, Dakota got another stop and began a lengthy drive of its own, amazingly chewing up the final 10:19 of the game on its way to a 30-19 victory.

The win sends the Indians (7-4) into next weekend’s quarterfinal round against Northwest Upstate Illinois Conference rival Forreston, which upended the only other team to beat Marquette, Chicago Hope Academy 44-16.

The disappointed Marquette club saw its season end with a 9-2 record.

“It was frustrating,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said. “We ended the first half really great with a good drive, got a turnover, got another touchdown, then we just couldn’t get the ball back. We played hard, but they just pounded it. They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect. They just did it very well, very precisely. They were patient. They didn’t get greedy. They just chunked it out on us and didn’t make any mistakes.

“It’s never easy to see a season end. These are great kids, and the seniors, they’re great leaders. I’m really going to miss them.”

Marquette rolled to the game’s first score, with quarterback Alex Graham breaking a 28-yard run and hitting Charlie Mullen for 19 yards to set up his own 2-yard sneak that, with Sam Mitre’s extra point, made it 7-0.

But the Indians scored the next 22 points, first on a 2-yard dive and two-point run by Conner Mathews, then by taking advantage of Cru miscues.

After Thomas Bowman picked off a Graham pass, Adrian Arellano broke off a 33-yard TD, with Mathews kicking the PAT, then Kade Vock recovered a whiffed punt of the slippery ball at the Marquette 17. Bowman cashed that in from 13 yards away for a 22-7 Dakota lead.

But suddenly, the mistakes went the other way.

Marquette converted three straight fourth-and-short situations, the last on a sweep by Tommy Durdan for a 53-yard touchdown. Durdan finished with 14 carries for 109 yards.

Marquette’s Mullen picked off a screen pass by Kaidyn Neidermeier at the Indians’ 45 with 52.6 seconds to go and Graham made it count, throwing a 29-yard pass to Logan Nelson to the Dakota 1 before punching it in himself with only 9.7 seconds left.

“I was an idiot calling a timeout with 1:48 left before they make a nice play,” Dakota coach Dan Sheets said. “And I had said all week I wasn’t going to throw the ball, and I did twice and look what happened the second time. It set up their second score. As good and as talented as they are, you can’t give them opportunities like that.”

Coming out of the half, Marquette marched the ball a whopping 19 times for 50 yards to the Dakota 14 before the hosts stopped the Cru with 3:50 left in the third.

Unfortunately, the Indians attack became so efficient thereafter that the Crusaders ran only three more plays the rest of the game.

Mathews ran in a 14-yard TD and the two-point conversion to widen the lead for the final score and, after Marquette’s three-and-out, ran 15 straight running plays to erase the final 10:19 of the contest.

“I told our kids at halftime that we were gonna do what we do, and that’s run the ball,” Sheets said. “The kids played awesome. They keep fighting.”