CHESTERFIELD – The situation required cleverness, so CBC turned to Jason Wiley.
Twice after Marquette returned interceptions for touchdowns, the junior quarterback entered the game in relief and orchestrated a scoring drive.
“In these types of games, you need tunnel vision. You can’t dwell on bad plays. You have to look forward and that’s what we did,” Wiley said.
Wiley calmed the waters in the first half, then led the Cadets on three successive touchdown drives late in the second half to help CBC outlast Marquette 44-35 Friday in a Class 6 District 2 semifinal at Marquette High.
CBC (8-2), the defending Class 6 state champion, advanced to the district title game to face Francis Howell (9-2), the defending Class 5 state champion, at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10 at Francis Howell High School.
The Cadets played without Ohio State-commit Jeremiah McClellan, who stood on the sideline in a walking boot with an injury that coach Scott Pingel called “day-by-day, week-by-week.”
The CBC victory required increased contributions from several players, most notably, junior AJ Morris, who carried the ball 30 times for 186 yards as the Cadets leaned heavily on their ground attack.
“I knew my team was depending on me because J-Mac was out. I knew I had to step up,” said Morris, who led a CBC ground attack that churned up 297 yards and included two-touchdown performances from junior AJ Johnson and sophomore Courtney Rivers.
Also stepping up were receivers Brycen Dorsey, Jaquice Williams and Jackson Kohl, who combined to catch 10 passes Friday after accumulating a total of 21 receptions during the season.
“When you lose a guy like Jeremiah, you have to try to spread out his role among other people,” CBC coach Scott Pingel said. “We ran the ball a little more than we typically do, but that’s what the game called for, and our guys understand that we’re going to do whatever the game calls for.”
Marquette (7-3) had a calling card of its own – getting takeaways. The Mustangs forced 27 turnovers in their first nine games, and senior cornerback Robert Williams quickly continued the trend on Friday.
Williams stepped in front of a pass thrown by Cadets’ starting quarterback Cole McKey and raced 35 yards to give the Mustangs a 14-7 lead midway through the first quarter.
“I saw the first (receiver) running a post and the second one running an out. I knew I could get it and I jumped it,” Williams said.
Wiley entered the game at quarterback on the ensuing CBC drive, and in three plays the Cadets were in the end zone. Two 16-yard bursts by Morris and a beautiful, lofted deep ball from Wiley to Corey Simms covered 33 yards and tied the game at 14.
“When I got my opportunity, I had to make a play and get some momentum for the team,” said Wiley, who went 10-of-12 for 124 yards and added 27 yards rushing in a relief effort.
With the score tied at 21 late in the first half, McKey led the Cadets inside the Mustangs’ five-yard line, but on the 12th play of the drive, his pass was tipped at the goal line by senior Nick Miller and snagged again by Williams.
Williams received a block and sprinted from end zone to end zone for his second pick-6 of the game to give the Mustangs a seven-point lead with 1 minute 28 seconds remaining before halftime.
“We know we need stops at the moment, we know we need big plays and that’s just what we do,” said Williams, who notched his sixth interception and the 17th for the Mustangs this season.
With Wiley back at the helm, CBC advanced into field goal range and kicker Simon Kacich booted a 22-yarder as time expired.
After a whirlwind first half in which CBC ran 47 offensive plays compared to 21 for Marquette, the Cadets entered the locker room trailing 28-24.
“I asked our staff at halftime, ‘How is the sideline, are we still OK?’” Pingel said. “They said, ‘We’re fine coach, we still believe.’”
CBC moved the ball inside the Marquette 10-yard line on its first possession of the second half, but a fumble near the front right pylon produced the Cadets’ third turnover.
Four plays later, an interception by Javontae Kyles appeared to give CBC its first takeaway, but during the return, an ill-fated lateral to a teammate landed on the turf and Marquette recovered.
“After the game you don’t want to talk about negative things, but there are an awful lot of things we need to clean up,” Pingel said. “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that in the playoffs, if you make mistakes, it’s going to come back to haunt you.”
But Wiley, Morris and the CBC offense ensured it would not be the Cadets’ witching hour.
Wiley found Kohl for 16 yards to highlight a five-play, 31-yard scoring drive that was polished off by a short touchdown run from Rivers. It gave CBC a 30-28 lead midway through the third quarter.
After the defense forced a punt, Wiley orchestrated a nine-play, 73-yard drive that included a 20-yard completion to Dorsey and a 25-yard burst by Morris. AJ Johnson barreled in from two yards away to open a nine-point cushion for CBC.
“(Wiley) did a good job of reading what they were giving us,” Pingel said. “They made the box a little gray, ‘Should you hand it off? Should you throw it?’ And I thought he did a nice job with that.”
The Marquette defense endured 83 plays Friday, most within 10 to 15 seconds of the last one, as CBC used tempo and physicality to its advantage.
“As the game wore on, their run game started to pick up, and we started to get tired at the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball,” Marquette coach Michael Stewart said. “They were chunking us three or four plays at a time, and a few passes across the middle on third down gashed us.”
CBC went 9-for-13 on third and fourth down.
Trailing by nine points, Marquette mounted its best drive since the first quarter. A 25-yard strike from Caden Throneberry to senior Tyree Bonnett set up a 24-yard touchdown run by senior Derris Noldon and sliced the deficit to 37-35 with 8 minutes remaining.
Bonnett caught six passes for 91 yards and Noldon led the Mustangs with 79 rushing yards on nine carries during their final game with the Mustangs.
“I’m really proud of our seniors. They played four quarters and they never quit, and that’s all that we ask in this program,” Stewart said.
But Wiley led CBC on a final, 12-play drive that chewed up over five minutes and included completions to Simms and Dorsey and three tough runs by Morris. When Rivers blasted across the goal line from three yards away, it put the game out of reach.
“We had to come out and fight in the second half and that’s what we did,” Morris said.
Wiley added, “We stayed on the same path and played CBC football.”