Afternoon of almosts

AURORA -- Fancy it wasn't. Effective it was.

Immaculate Conception went 'old school' to ruin (barely) Marmion Academy's homecoming 40-38 Saturday at Fichtel Field.

The Knights (4-3, 3-2 in the Suburban Catholic Conference) unleashed a powerful two-pronged running attack in the form of senior Paul Hornstra and junior Carlos Rodriguez to run over the Cadets (2-5, 0-5).

Rodriguez carried 16 times for 192 yards and scored on runs of 8, 65 and 51 yards while Hornstra had 21 rushes for 185 yards and a pair of 27-yard TD runs.

Marmion, meanwhile, was held to 108 yards on the ground compared to 408 for the Knights.

"We couldn't stop the run and we couldn't run the ball and you have to be able to run the ball and you have to be able to stop the run," Marmion head coach Dan Thorpe said.

It was an afternoon of almost for the Cadets.

Marmion, which trailed the entire second half, used a keen bit of strategy to give itself an opportunity to tie the game in the final minute of play.

With just over a minute remaining, having just one timeout and IC knocking at the door with the ball at the Cadet 15, Marmion's coaching staff told the defense to allow Knights' quarterback Will Cronin to score a touchdown in order to conserve time.

It looked like a stroke of genius when Marmion quarterback Ricky Bird threw a 16-yard TD pass to Sean Fichtel with 24.4 seconds remaining. That cut IC's lead to 40-38 and put the Cadets a two-point conversion away from a likely overtime.

That didn't happen. Bird's conversion pass was intercepted in the end zone and the Knights ran the clock out.

Still, it was a great effort by the Cadets, especially Bird and his receivers. Bird was 14 of 27 for 345 yards and all five Marmion touchdowns. Fichtel had six catches for 148 yards and TD receptions of 65 (on the first play of the game) and 16 yards and tailback Matt Pircon grabbed five passes for 160 yards, including scoring strikes of 4, 54 and 16 yards.

"I"ve been saying each week, but I'm proud of our football team," Thorpe said. "We hung in there. We never quit. Today we got beat, they pounded us. We didn't beat ourselves with turnovers.

"Sometimes the football gods aren't fair or the ball doesn't bounce your way. Unfortunately, now, I have to say the season hasn't gone our way."

Barely. Immaculate Conception 40, Marmion 38