Marmion 6
Fenwick 0
Joe DiCanio wanted nothing else but Fenwick football fans to know that Friday night’s 6-0 loss at Marmion was solely his fault.
“This loss goes on my head,” he declared after his Friars failed to convert a first down in the opening half and only managed 62 net yards on the ground for the entire game. “It was a head-coaching disaster. My staff and I just did not have the guys prepared enough.”
Marmion’s Kyle Kozak scored the lone touchdown of the game on a 5-yard run in the second quarter.
Marmion, who made it as far as the Class 6A Championship last season and returned eight players on defense and six on offense from that team, caught two breaks in the fourth quarter. With the Cadets facing fourth and long on two occasions, Fenwick (1-1) was hit with penalties.
“You are supposed to improve from Week 1 to Week 2, and we just didn’t get to that point,” said DiCanio. “Marmion is a good team; they’re not the same team as last year but they are still formidable and they ran over us.”
The Cadets converted 6-of-7 first downs on running plays. Of their 47 plays in the game, only three were passes.
“I’ve never seen a team run that many times on third down. If you can’t stop the run and you can’t run the ball yourself, you’ll lose,” said DiCanio, whose Friars were coming off a win over Hales the week prior where they racked up 177 yards of offense in the first half alone. “We’re lucky we didn’t lose 36-0.”
Running back Nick Johnson led the Friars in rushing with 33 yards on three carries, while Marmion’s Garrett Becker finished with 70 yards on 15 carries.
Things don’t get much easier for Fenwick this week as the Friars travel to highly ranked St. Rita on Friday (7:30 p.m.).
