Marquette gets physical, topples Ridgewood, 36-26

OTTAWA – Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka, a bruiser in his own right, often said that he believed that when he knew he was going to get hit, that “it reflected a greater intelligence to deliver the blow than to accept one,” from a defender.

The Marquette football team borrowed a page from his book on Friday night.

Payton Gutierrez carried 26 times for a hard 191 yards and a touchdown. Teammate Jacob Smith added 17 attempts for a tough 76 yards and four short TDs as the Crusaders aggressively sought out hard but clean contact with Norridge Ridgewood and came away with a 36-26 Chicagoland Prairie League victory at Gould Stadium.

“We ran hard because this whole week was about making the playoffs, and we’re eligible for that now,” Gutierrez said. “Eventually, things got a little chippy out there, and that just fueled it even more. We decided that we weren’t going to talk back, we’re just going to hit them. The adrenaline took away the tiredness, and we did hard tonight.”

Pete McGrath chipped in seven tries for 79 yards as the Cru turned in a whopping 59 rushes for 360 yards on the ground and totaled 383 yards in their fifth win of the season.

“That was a dilly, a barn-burner, it really was,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said. “It’s great to see us do the hitting when we run the ball. ‘Gut’ had a really nice night for us.

“Ridgewood has some great athletes. They scored two of their touchdowns on broken plays, which is a testament to the athleticism they have. … They have some good receivers and their quarterback is slippery, so I’m really proud of our kids. We have a lot of kids who go both ways, we were tired, we were hurting, but they hung in there. No one complained. The guys just did what they had to do and got the job done.”

Marquette (5-1, 4-0 CPL) struck first with a 15-play, 73-yard drive that ate up almost half of the opening quarter on its way to a 2-yard TD run by Smith. A short Rebels punt gave MA a short field, setting up a 1-yard plunge by the senior fullback that, with Sam Mitre’s PAT kick, made it 14-0.

Ridgewood (3-3, 1-3) didn’t roll over, instead showed its explosiveness with 58-yard scoring pass from Jaden Rodriguez to Lucas Melendez on the next series.

However, the Cru bounced back with a 2-yard Gutierrez TD and Smith’s third score, this from 2 yards away, to widen the gap to 23 points before another Rebel bomb, a 70-yard strike from Rodriguez to Niall Kenny, pulled them within 29-12 at the half.

Smith’s final touchdown, a 12-yard fight to the end zone capped by a crushing hit from a Ridgeview defender, provided what felt like insurance in the third, but the Rebels had other ideas in what turned out to be a sloppy fourth period.

In a hurry-up offense, Julian Luna netted a 5-yard TD, and Melendez broke loose for a 58-yarder to slice the deficit to the final, but an interception by McGrath on the conversion kept it a two-possession game. In all, there were nine penalties called in the final eight minutes, six for 60 yards by Marquette, which finished with 10 for 70 yards.

On the flip side, Ridgewood was penalized 11 times for 115 yards on the night. For the game, Marquette’s Anthony Couch hit on 3 of 6 passes for 23 yards, while Rodriguez completed 13 of 24 passes for 205 yards, seven of those to Melendez for 87 yards and four to Kenny for 108.