Prepared St. Viator drops Marian Catholic
From the moment St. Viator stepped onto the field at Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights Friday night for its CCL/ESCC Purple Division battle with Marian Catholic, the Lions had put their stamp on a dominant performance in which they led from start to finish emerging victorious 28-14.
"I thought we came out with great energy tonight in the first half especially," Viator head coach Dave Archibald said. "We were able to control the line at times for sure. We took some punches in the second half, but we were able to sustain that."
It began thanks to senior Dominic McKevitt, who on Marian's first play from scrimmage, picked off quarterback Kyle Thomas at the Lions' 46-yard line and took it back 38 yards to the Spartan 16. He finished Viator's subsequent offensive on the receiving end of Charlie Dolsen's 7-yard pass that got them on the scoreboard first (7-0) at the 6:51 mark of the opening quarter of play.
"It was a beautiful play design," McKevitt said of his touchdown catch from Dolsen. "(He threw) a beautiful ball."
His observance of Thomas defensively got the ball rolling for Viator (3-3, 2-0).
I saw their QB (Thomas) looking at it. I was ready for the seam. I just jumped it (the pass)," he said.
Dolsen's second TD pass (58 yards) to Michael Nix on their second offensive expanded the lead to 14-0 with 3:43 remaining in quarter number one. The sophomore called Nix's number again for a 22-yard strike that set Danny Crawford up for a 1-yard run that set the Lions up 21-0 at the break.
Dolsen's (18-for-29, 240 yards) successful rise under center after senior Alex Konopka's week one knee injury has provided Viator with a huge lift according to Archibald.
"Charlie has stepped in and in just a few week's time (has) shown he's capable of being a very good varsity quarterback. We're thrilled with his work ethic," the coach said.
In the meantime McKevitt and teammates on defense: Carson Eggebraten, Will Fitzpatrick, John Kaiser, Jayden Franzen, Juan Rivera, Mikey Austing, Michael Carpenter, Justin Mirski, and Ryan Ziebka put the wraps on a Marian Catholic (2-4, 0-2) attack that averaged 28 points a game heading into the contest. It allowed only a 54-yard Thomas TD jaunt in the third and a 14-yard Thomas TD pass to Kaleb Isom in the game's closing seconds.
In between, McKevitt's second interception of the night, a 40 yard return for a score that made it 28-7 with 1:31 left, served as reward for what he called a solid week of preparation.
"I have to give it to our coaches for preparing us very well," McKevitt said. "We got it done. Everybody contributed. Everybody did their job."