Explorers nip Nokomis in OT, Metro East Lutheran falls Saturday
NOKOMIS – Marquette Catholic's football team had quite the weekend.
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The Explorers' Prairie State Conference game against Nokomis was suspended with 10:19 left in the second quarter with the Redskins knocking at the door because of severe storms that rolled through Central Illinois Friday night.
The resumption was scheduled for Saturday evening, and Explorer coach Darrell Angleton decided to take advantage of the delay by breaking down and showing the tape of the first quarter to his team Saturday afternoon.
“We had the kids come in Saturday afternoon and we all looked at the film,” Angleton said. “We made some adjustments after that.”
While the Redskins scored immediately after the resumption of play, the adjustments the Explorers made worked like a charm, enabling Marquette to take a 24-23 overtime win.
“The boys were really happy after the game,” Angleton said.
Marquette bounced back from the Redskin score with a 43-yard touchdown pass from Trey Aguirre to Jesse Simmons to take a 7-6 lead. The Redskins scored again on a Ryan Archibald 30-yard TD reception from Chris McQuirre and a two-point convert, then went up 17-7 when McQuirre connected on a 27-yard field goal early in the final term.
The Explorers responded with a D'Avion Peebles TD run on the next possession to cut the deficit to three, then Liam Maher hit a 40-yard field goal to tie the game and eventually force overtime.
“Liam hit a 48-yard field goal last year,” Angleton said. “He's as good a kicker as there is in the area.”
Marquette lost the coin toss to start overtime and took possession first, scoring on the second play when Aguirre scampered in from 10 yards out and Maher added the convert to put the Explorers up 24-17. Nokomis answered in a similar fashion when McQuire ran it in from nine yards out on their second play of OT.
The Redskins then lined up for a one-point convert attempt, but went for the win with a fake as Aaron Lovelace tried to run the ball in; Brian Nagy sniffed it out and stopped Lovelace short of the goal line to give the Explorers the win.
Metro East Lutheran falls to South Fork
In another PSC contest that was delayed to Saturday, Kincade South Fork defeated Metro East Lutheran-Madison 31-0 Saturday afternoon. The game began Friday night but was stopped late in the first quarter after storms hit the area.
Marquette went to 2-2 overall, 2-0 in the PSC with the win; Nokomis fell to 0-4, 0-2 in the league. The Explorers host East Alton-Wood River at 1 p.m. Saturday in Marquette's homecoming game at Public School Stadium.
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