Marquette’s high-powered air-game too much
Wauwatosa — Just when Racine Horlick’s Rebels thought they’d made a game of it, they had to think again.
Marquette’s high-powered air-game scored two touchdowns in the final 1:18 of the first half and then posted 10 more points in the first 8 minutes of the third quarter to cruise to a 31-15 victory Friday night in the second round of the WIAA Division 1 football playoffs.
Freddy Poorman threw two touchdown passes to Hank Lamers as the Hilltoppers beat Horlick through the air.
The Rebels (8-3) ran the ball well early despite the loss last week of starting lineman Jordan Gallagher. But things went downhill when running back Joe Garcia went down with a right ankle injury in the first quarter. Garcia returned but wasn’t as effective running the ball. He played quarterback much of the second half.
Marquette (9-2) struck twice in the final 78 seconds of the half to take a 21-7 lead into the final 24 minutes.
“That’s huge,” Marquette coach Jeff Mazurczak said of the two half-closing scores.
Daniel Carter capped a 53-yard drive with a 1-yard run with 1:18 left on the clock.
Horlick took over on its own 23, and two running plays went backward with Marquette taking timeouts after each. After the Rebels threw incomplete on third down, the Hilltoppers got the ball at their own 48 with 33.8 seconds left.
Poorman, who was 18 for 29 for 221 yards and two touchdowns, connected with Lamers for 42 yards on the first play.
“I knew Freddy was going to put it there,” said Lamers, who had six catches for 103 yards. “He just threw it up and I went and got the ball. We work on that every day in practice — just high-point the ball. I got inside position and used my body to shield him off and went and got it.”
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After an 8-yard pass to tight end Justin Novotny got it to the 2, Poorman rolled right, then threw back to Lamers in the deep left corner for the touchdown with 8.8 seconds left.
“We had a five-minute stretch there at the end of the half where I thought the kids doubted themselves,” Horlick coach Brian Fletcher said. “That turned out to be the difference.”
Along with the two scores to end the half, Marquette received the second-half kickoff and put the game away with a field goal and touchdown.
“We knew that, so we really wanted to make an effect,” Mazurczak said of getting the ball in the second half.
Poorman completed four passes in a seven-play, 68-yard march, the final 29 coming on a wide receiver screen to Lamers on the left perimeter to give Marquette a 7-0 lead.
Horlick went 54 yards in nine plays, all on the ground, with George Sims covering the last 27 yards. He carried 16 yards up the middle to the 11 and then swept around the right side for the touchdown with 2:55 left in the half.
That set up Marquette’s big finish to the first half.
“We knew we could go out and do it,” Poorman said of the end of the first and start of the second halves.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained the incorrect nickname for Racine Horlick. It is the Rebels.