Norfolk Catholic staves off upset-minded Battle Creek

BATTLE CREEK - Two plays may well have been the difference keeping Battle Creek from upsetting Class C2 #3 Norfolk Catholic at home on Friday.

Knight sophomore Brayden Kosch made two huge defense plays - the first, forcing a fumble on Battle Creek's Hunter Kruse that ended an eight-minute-plus drive by the Braves just before the end of the half; the second, stopping Kruse again on what would have been a game-tying two-point conversion preserving Norfolk Catholic's 24-22 win.

Battle Creek's gameplan worked well, with the Braves rushing for 263 yards on the ground, while holding Norfolk Catholic to 130 yards rushing.

The Knights aerial assault was impressive, with senior signal caller Callen Marshall completing his last nine passes in a row, including a 34-yd TD pass to sophomore Jonathan Hartzell on a 4th and five that proved to be the game-winning score.

The win is the 15th for Norfolk Catholic in their last 16 games against their rivals from Battle Creek, dating back to 2004.

SCORING SUMMARY

NORFOLK CATHOLIC (7-1) -  3  7  7  7 - 24

BATTLE CREEK (2-6)           -  8  0  8  6 - 22

FIRST QUARTER

5:11 - NORFOLK CATHOLIC: Edwin Alarcon 29-yd FG

0:49 - BATTLE CREEK: Casey Schnebel: 9-yd TD run (2-pt conversion good)

SECOND QUARTER

0:35 - NORFOLK CATHOLIC: Callen Marshall 52-yd TD pass to Will Brockhaus (XP good)

THIRD QUARTER

5:47 - NORFOLK CATHOLIC: Nathan Timmerman 1-yd TD run (XP good)

0:53 - BATTLE CREEK: Hunter Kruse 5-yd TD run (2-pt conversion good)

FOURTH QUARTER

8:19 - NORFOLK CATHOLIC: Callen Marshall 34-yd TD pass to Jonathan Hartzell (XP good)

1:10 - BATTLE CREEK: Hunter Kruse 4-yd TD run (2-pt conversion no good)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

NORFOLK CATHOLIC

RUSHING

- Will Brockhaus: 14 carries, 55 yds

- Gage Yosten: 3 carries, 12 yds

- Blake Flood: 3 carries, 29 yds

- Callen Marshall: 2 carries, 3 yds

- James Lanman: 1 carry, 9 yds

- Nathan Timmerman: 7 carries, 22 yds, 1 TD

PASSING

- Callen Marshall: 13-of-15, 203 yds, 2 TD

RECEIVING

- Jonathan Hartzell: 4 rec, 69 yds, 1 TD

- Gage Yosten: 1 rec, 11 yds

- Will Brockhaus: 2 rec, 54 yds, 1 TD

- Blake Flood: 3 rec, 33 yds

- Breckon Feilmeier: 1 rec, 19 yds

- Brayden Kosch: 1 rec, 17 yds

BATTLE CREEK

RUSHING

- Casey Schnebel: 15 carries, 77 yds, 1 TD

- Hunter Kruse: 21 carries, 154 yds, 2 TD

- Tyan Thompson: 2 carries, 8 yds

- Andy Ricchio: 1 carry, 24 yds

PASSING

- Tyan Thompson: 5-of-6, 28 yds

RECEIVING

- Andy Ricchio: 2 rec, 10 yds

- Breylin Witzel: 1 rec, 10 yds

- Kamden Showalter: 1 rec, 2 yds

- Tre Higby: 1 rec, 6 yds