McGrath’s clutch TD, ground game lead Marquette past St. Bede

OTTAWA – Through play after play in the mud and the constant drizzle at Gould Stadium, Friday night’s Chicagoland Prairie Conference showdown between rivals Marquette and St. Bede came down to the narrowest of margins.

But that was enough for the Crusaders.

After an MA turnover helped the Bruins tie the score at 7-7 on a Max Bray two-yard run in the second quarter, the Cru’s Pete McGrath stopped that huge momentum swing in its tracks, on a sweep to the left, turning a corner and tip-toeing along the sideline for a good five yards before completing a big 73-yard touchdown run.

That score, plus an overpowering ground game, allowed Marquette to build a 20-point second-half advantage before holding off St. Bede for a 34-20 victory.

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Members of the Marquette football team celebrate after defeating St. Bede 34-20 on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023 at Gould Stadium. (Scott Anderson)

McGrath finished with nine carries for 141 yards and that score, while Jacob Smith added 23 for 92 yards and a TD, Payton Gutierrez had 11 tries for 65, and Grant Dose rushed seven times for 57 yards and two touchdowns as the Cru rolled up 362 ground yards on 54 rushes.

The hosts needed every one to offset Bray, who connected on 18 of 30 passes for 279 yards and two scoring strikes, the latter in the fourth quarter to pull the visitors to within one score. In all, the senior quarterback accounted for 322 yards of offense, one more than the team’s 321, including losses.

But Dose’s second TD – a 28-yard burst – ensured Marquette’s move to 6-2, 5-1 in the league, heading into the regular-season finale at Dwight. St. Bede drops to 5-3, 4-2 with only undefeated conference leader Seneca remaining.

“We’re a running team and tonight we ran a good, hard off-tackle and outside game tonight,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said. “Bray is a really good passer and though we made some plays, we had some trouble with that tonight. Our thought was that if he was going to beat us, he was going to have to do it throwing the ball. He can kill you running, but we did a nice job.

“It’s just nice to win in Week 8, in a game we had to win. It happened to be St. Bede, but I’m proud of how we handled Seneca and St. Bede back-to-back. That’s quite a test and the kids rose up both weeks.”

As it did in last week’s 28-6 loss to the Irish, MA marched to the opening score, a four-yard burst by Dose and Sam Mitre’s PAT capping a 12-play, 69-yard drive.

Charlie Mullen ended the ensuing SBA threat with an interception at the goal line, but the visitors made the most of a recovered Cru fumble at the MA 30. Bray punched it in and Ryan Solimon’s kick tied it at 7-7.

That’s when McGrath stepped up big, skirting the sideline for the crucial long-distance score and a 14-7 edge,

“I really didn’t know how close I was to the sideline. I just saw Sam (Mitre) in front of me, saw a little hole next to him and away I went,” McGrath said. “We ran with an edge tonight, it was a rival, and tonight we did a great job doing that.”

The Cru added a seven-yard TD pass from Anthony Couch to Mullen for a 20-7 lead at the half, then used Smith’s one-yarder to make it 27-7 with 4:54 left in the third.

But Bray would not go quietly and on the Bruins first play of the fourth period connected with Alex Ankiewicz for a 64-yard score. After an onside kick was recovered by William Sramek, Bray found Carson Riva for a 12-yard TD to slice the deficit to 27-20 with 6:55 to go.

On the night, Halden Hueneburg hauled in seven Bray passes for 66 yards and Entrican four for 60.

The Crusaders recovered the next onside kick, leading to Dose’s clincher.

“We had our chances. We just made too many mistakes, plain and simple. We came up small in big moments,” said St. Bede coach Jim Eustice, a Marquette alum, football standout and former head coach. “Max was pretty good in the passing game tonight, but we didn’t play very well up front, on either side of the football tonight.

“We were expecting exactly what we got. We knew what they were going to do, we had our chances, made too many mistakes, we didn’t play well enough. It’s that simple. Give credit to Marquette.”