Marquette in top form in 40-7 rout of Sherrard

SHERRARD — If Marquette football coach Tom Jobst had any concerns about the affect of last week’s “bye week” this late in the season, it only took a few plays for the Crusaders to calm his nerves, at least as much as the veteran coach’s nerves can be eased before the final horn.

The only evidence of affect from Chicago Christ the King’s not showing up for its Week 8 encounter at Gould Stadium came out in Marquette’s first series when a botched handoff was fumbled and Sherrard recovered.

After that, it was Crusaders football at its best.

Tommy Durdan rushed just seven times for 203 yards, including touchdown runs of 70 and 74 yards, and Logan Nelson added five carries for 106 yards, two rushing TDs and a 28-yard scoring reception from Alex Graham to lead the Cru to 437 yards of total offense.

On the other side of the ball, Griffin Walker returned an interception 79 yards for a touchdown and the Crusaders surrendered 230 yards in a 40-7 road victory over the Tigers on Friday.

Marquette, which finished with 30 tries for 394 ground yards, scored on four of its first five possessions, while its defense limited Sherrard quarterback Holland Anderson to 14-of-32 passing for 168 yards and no scores. The home team’s only TD came on a 74-yard run by Izaac Novitske on the game’s final play against the Marquette reserves.

“I knew Logan was fast, but that one touchdown (a 53-yarder in the second quarter) surprised even me,” Jobst said with a chuckle. “Sherrard really had us packed in (between the tackles) and Tommy and Logan did a great job running outside. When we needed a pass, we got it. When we needed an outside run, we got it. We got what we needed tonight… The guys played hard, they played well.

“We knew this was going to be a hard game against a dangerous team. Sherrard played hard, but we made some big plays … I think we’re playing the kind of ball we want to be playing right now heading into the playoffs.”

After Marquette fumbled on its first possession, Sherrard did the same. Ethan Price’s recovery at the MA 13 started the momentum the visitors way. Three straight 14-yard runs by Jurnee Reed, Nelson and Durdan led to a 14-yard score for Nelson.

On the third play of Marquette’s next series, Durdan broke free for his 70-yard TD. Defensively, on Sherrard’s next series, Charlie Mullen had momentum-changing four-play stretch in which he batted down a pass, defended a pass and sacked Anderson on a fourth-and-4 at the Cru 10.

The Cru kept rolling when Graham hit Nelson on a 28-yard post route to start the second period to make it 18-0. Nelson then made it four scores in a row by sprinting around left end for a 53-yard scoring burst that, with a Graham to Mullen PAT pass, made it 26-0.

“I surprised myself on that one,” Nelson said. “Everybody said I was running fast and I thought so too. I was moving. That was the fastest I’ve ever run in my life … There was a lot of good blocking, the linemen, the receivers downfield, just good blocking all night.”

With time in the half running down, Walker stepped in front of an Anderson sideline pass and rolled 79 yards for the pick 6 with only 3.8 seconds left.

Durdan’s 74-yard jaunt on the Cru’s first play of the second half, plus Vinny Battistelli’s conversion, started the 40-point running clock less than two minutes into the third period.

“Everything felt good tonight,” Durdan said. “This was a quality team, a 3A team that had played better than its record, so we wanted to come in, do our job, execute and we’d be all right. We’d win and build some momentum going into the postseason.

“It all begins now. Everyone is 0-0, we just try to get better each week and see what happens.”