MELROSE PARK — If you are familiar with anyone who is of the belief that "numbers never lie," refer that person to Saturday afternoon's Northeastern Athletic Conference contest between Marquette Academy and Walther Christian. What transpired there is proof that if numbers aren't lying, they are certainly misleading.

The figures show that Walther Christian out-gained the Crusaders 190 yards to 181, led by the game's leading rusher, Curtis Reeves, with 132 yards on 17 carries. They also ran more plays 42-27, had fewer penalties and even possessed the ball for more than twice the time the visitors had it for 33 minutes, 12 seconds to just 14:48 for the Cru. It would be easy to assume a one-sided victory for the Broncos ... but no. It was the other way around.

The Crusaders made the most of what little time it did have the ball, starting with two touchdowns from junior back Luke Couch in the first 3:07 of the game. Those, when added a one-yard TD from Preston Aukland just minutes later gave the visitors a 21-0 advantage with still over four minutes left in the first quarter, and was enough to send them on their way to a 49-8 pasting of Walther Christian here at an overcast Fran Fannelli Memorial Field.

Couch took MA's third play from scrimmage — and his only carry of the game — for a 46-yard score. After a WCA three-and-out, the speedster returned the hosts' punt 66 yards for another TD and later returned another fourth-down kick 85 yards to paydirt for the maximum 18 points on his only three touches of the day.

Aukland added two one-yard scoring runs, quarterback Jay Scott tossed a 12-yard scoring pass to Victor Mullen — ensuring a running clock for the entire second half — and sophomore Vinnie Battestelli put the icing on the cake with a four-yard touchdown in the final quarter, lifting MA to 4-0, 2-0 in the NAC. Walther Christian, despite Reeves' showing, falls to 1-3, 0-1.

"That big No. 10 (Reeves), he's a bruiser and No. 1 (Kenoje Evans), he's a really fast kid," said Marquette coach Tom Jobst, "but they had tendencies based on formations they were in and that's what we were focused on, and the kids did a good job of remembering those tendencies, recognizing them and making the plays.

"I thought the kids today came out with energy when we easily could have been flat after last week (a 41-35 nail-biter at Hiawatha), they came out and got right after it, taking them out of it right away. Luke helped contribute to that a lot with the big returns. He's a pretty good football player."

That showed very early on and very often. On the third play in, Couch took an off-tackle play to the right, cut it up and back to the left for his 46-yard TD jaunt. After WCA was forced to punt, Couch took the Reeves kick and, running to his left at midfield, out-ran the Broncos for the 66-yard tally.

Then to seemingly add insult to injury, Couch intercepted a Reeves pass that led several plays later to the first of two Aukland one-yard scores. At this point, Walther had had two possessions totalling less than two minutes and trailed 21-0.

Couch's second punt return TD came at 8:38 of the second period before Victor Mullen's catch of a mis-kicked punt at the line of scrimmage led to the big tight end's 12-yard TD catch from Scott. On WCA's next series, Aukland got a hand on an Evans pitch and recovered it at the Broncos 1-yard line. He took it in from there and it was a 42-0 and a running clock for the second half.

Walther Christian's lone score came on an eight-yard run by Elgin Bowen, capping a drive that ate up so much of the third quarter that MA got to run just one play. Of the Broncos' 190 yards in total offense, 155 came in the second half against the Cru's second team.

On the next home series, Marquette's Gabe Amicon picked off an Evans pass, leading to the game-capper by Battestelli with 3:28 left to play.

"Marquette's still as good as they have been," said WCA coach Tim Eberhard. "The big plays were killers, no doubt. Those got our heads hanging a little bit, and then the bad pitch giving them the ball at the one-yard line didn't do us any favors. We had our moments, on defense when we were able to stop them at times and on offense when we made some plays ... but it's been less than two weeks since we've had this lineup together and we're still learning what we can do with this (backfield).

"We have to become more consistent in what we do on both sides of the ball, that's for sure."

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At Fran Fannelli Field, Melrose Park

Marquette (4-0, 2-0) 21 14 0 7 — 49

Walther Christian (1-3, 0-1) 0 0 8 0 — 8

Scoring summary

First quarter

MA — Couch 46 run (Scott kick), 10:56, 7-0.

MA — Couch 66 punt return (Scott kick), 8:53, 14-0.

MA — Aukland 1 run (Scott kick), 4:10, 21-0.

Second quarter

MA — Couch 85 punt return (Scott kick), 8:38, 28-0.

MA — Mullen 12 pass from Scott (Scott kick), 4:14, 35-0.

MA — Aukland 1 run (Scott kick), 3:55, 42-0.

Third quarter

WC — Bowen 8 run (Reeves run), 1:27, 41-8.

Fourth quarter

MA — Battestelli 4 run (Scott kick), 3:28, 49-8.

Team statistics

MA WC

First downs 11 10

Rushes-Yards 22-146 35-160

Passing yards 35 30

Passing 4-6-0 2-7-2

Total offense 181 190

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 4-1

Penalties-Yards 4-30 3-20

Time of possession 14:48 33:12

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Marquette – Couch 1-46, Flavel 4-33, Battestelli 6-23, Reynolds 4-23, Nelson 1-15, Aukland 5-14, Scott 1-(-8); Walther – Reeves 17-132, Bowen 8-28, Evans 10-(-34).

PASSING (C-A-TD-INT-YD): Marquette – Scott 3-4-1-0-35, Durdan 0-1-0-0-0; Walther – Evans 1-2-0-1-15, Reeves 1-4-0-1-15, Bowen 0-1-0-0-0.

RECEIVING: Marquette – Mullen 3-35; Walther – Bowen 1-15, Evans 1-15.