Marmion more than just one-dimensional

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:04PM

In the fourth quarter of Marmion's 31-20 Class 6A quarterfinal

victory over Lemont, the Cadets turned the ball over twice on an

interception and a fumble after the Indians had drawn to within 24-20.

The miscues gave Lemont brief hope of a rally, but the Cadets came right

back by forcing a fumble and interception of their own to not only deflate

all hopes of an Indians comeback, but set up a late touchdown to clinch the

victory.

It was a wild stretch of play, as the four turnovers all took place in a

span of 13 plays in just four minutes and 21 seconds.

Yet it proved one thing about the Cadets: They can quickly forget a bad play

and focus on making a good one right after that.

They're trained that way.

Of Marmion's 11 offensive starters against Lemont (and key rotational

running backs Mitch Loehmann and Mike Carbonara), seven of them have seen

significant time playing defense. Wide receiver Tommy Rogers had an

interception that killed a Lemont drive deep in Marmion territory. Loehmann

had the interception in the fourth quarter, while T.J. Lally (running back),

Nick Scoliere (running back) and Ryan Glasgow (offensive line) are the

Cadets' most dynamic defensive players.

"It's good because you can't yell at the defense or the offense when

something goes wrong, you can only blame it on yourself mostly," Lally said.

"When something goes wrong, it's nice to come right back out and make up for

it."

The Cadets aren't alone in utilizing two-way players, even though they are

multiplied up into Class 6A. Their semifinal opponent, Danville, has 44

players on its roster - one more than Marmion.

Like the Cadets, the Vikings have their best players on the field at all

times.

"I've always been that kind of guy, even when I was at Waubonsie (Valley),"

Danville coach R.J. Luke said. "Our '92 team that got beat by two by

Naperville (North) in the semis, we had six kids go two ways in the largest

class. I've always felt like if you've got players that are that good, then

I want them on the football field. That's the way we go about it."

Besides the physical part of it - these athletes have to be in tremendous

shape keep solid form when tackling - there is a mental part of going both

ways that plays an important role.

Last Saturday's turnover fest proved that.

"To do it, you've got to really have a short memory," Scoliere said. "If you

mess up on offense you can't have it carry over to defense. That's where a

lot of people get in trouble when they play both ways. (Against Lemont) it

seemed like we had that short memory. We made sure of the fact that we

weren't going to let what happened on the other side of the ball affect us

the next one. We tried to have an extremely short memory and we succeeded in

that. That's what led to our victory."

As for this weekend, the litany of two way players for both schools will

perhaps lead to a battle of wills in what is expected to be a physical

contest.

"It makes for an interesting matchup," Luke said. "The first thing that

stuck out watching the film is that we thought they played awfully hard and

are tough, aggressive kids. They've very similar to the kids we have playing

those types of positions. "I think that's what you do with your good

football kids - you want them on the football field. We have a real similar

philosophy just watching how hard those kids from Marmion play both sides."

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