Zurek, Andrean make quick work of Noll

Updated: May 9, 2012 9:43AM

Senior Mason Zurek watched most of the Andrean-Bishop Noll contest from the sidelines on Friday night.

It’ll probably be the only game this season he gets this much rest.

Zurek made it look easy against the Warriors on the road rushing four times for 179 yards and catching a 45-yard pass for a touchdown — recording three total — as the 59ers rolled over Bishop Noll, 62-10 in Week 1.

In fact, the “Big 3” — returning running backs Zurek, Ricky Johnston, and Zack Kogut — carried the ball just 14 times but collected a whopping 282 yards and four touchdowns.

Junior backup running back Shamir Johnson was the workhorse carrying the ball 19 times for 129 yards and two touchdowns.

That’s pretty good depth, according to Zurek.

“We already have me, Ricky and Kogut returning from last year,” said Zurek, who rushed for 1,454 yards on 199 carries and 19 TDs last season. “Me and Ricky are both starting on defense, though, and Zack gets a lot of defensive line reps so Shamir is going to get some carries.

“And if he does like he did tonight, we’ll be pretty good.”

Andrean (1-0) didn’t get off to a great start, however. After stopping the Warriors on their first drive, the 59ers almost lost the ball on the punt return. Most of the fans on Noll’s side thought the home team actually recovered the ball as it hit two or three Warriors’ hands but a 59ers player came up with the loose football.

The 59ers offense wasn’t much better as receivers dropped two passes and Andrean was forced to punt. But a fake punt on fourth down went for 33 yards and Zurek capped the scoring drive with an 18-yard TD run.

That got the 59ers going and they never looked back.

Bishop Noll coach Mike Juscik said that changed the dynamics of the game completely.

“The first two series we knew they were going to run the ball,” the fifth-year coach said. “I thought what sparked Andrean was that fake punt and when that happened we kind of went ‘ahhh’ and (our) guys take that breath and they go ahead and score.”

“We should have had (the botched punt return too). If you want to beat a team like Andrean, you have to recover those fumbles. When you get a thing like that, you have to capitalize on it.”

The 59ers rolled out to a 42-0 lead before the Warriors (0-1) got on the scoreboard on a 34-yard field goal by Mitchell Payonk with 3:03 left in the second quarter.

Kogut (11-yard TD run), Billy Gornik (1-yard TD run) and Cody Cedano (3-yard TD run) added scores in the second half.

Zurek said that he hopes this is a sign of things to come.

“The biggest thing is we want to have a strong regular season and hopefully compete for conference,” he said. “And naturally the goal is to win a state title.”

Noll quarterback Josh Galgan finished with 159 yards on 15-of-28 passing with two touchdowns and one interception.

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