Marquette answers with 41 straight on homecoming

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Escanaba scored on the second play of the game Friday night. It did not score again after the first quarter.

Marquette ran off the last 41 points and won its homecoming game 48-10 at William R. Hart Stadium, a third straight win and the most the Sentinels have scored this season.

Winston Leonard completed 16 of 21 passes for 248 yards and four touchdowns. Skyler Blackburn scored three times before halftime. Brody Clements caught six passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns, and Dylan Pond ran 10 times for 106 yards. Marquette ran for 214 yards and threw for 248.

None of which was how the night started.

Sixty-nine yards, and then nothing

Escanaba won the toss and took the ball. Bryce Bichler ran 11 yards on first down. On the next snap Alex Ison faked the handoff to Bichler, kept it on a bootleg to the right side, beat the one man with an angle on him and ran 69 yards. Isaac Lambert’s kick made it 7-0 before a minute had run off the clock.

"We blew an assignment," Marquette coach Eric Mason said afterward. "It’s homecoming week. I knew our focus was going to take a little bit to get where we needed it."

Clements returned the kickoff to the Marquette 35, and the Sentinels needed six plays. Landen Faccio carried four times for most of it. On second-and-2 from the Escanaba 29, Leonard threw to Blackburn, who looked over the wrong shoulder, adjusted and caught it falling into the end zone. Leonard’s kick tied it with 8:26 left in the first quarter.

Escanaba answered with the kind of drive it is built to run -- Bichler for a first down, then Bichler again, finding a crease on the right side and getting all the way to the Marquette 17. Then it stopped answering. A holding penalty and two false starts, one of them drawn by Nashua Hoffman walking up to the line, pushed the Eskymos back to second-and-25 at the Marquette 32. They settled for a field goal and a 10-7 lead with 4:25 left in the quarter.

That was the last time Escanaba scored. There were more than 40 minutes still to play.

Blackburn’s half

Clements returned the next kickoff from the 8 to near midfield. Marquette faced third-and-long, and a defender hit Leonard’s helmet on a batted pass -- roughing the passer, automatic first down at the Escanaba 38. Leonard threw to Jack Keough to set up a manageable third down, Keough ran for the first, and a Clements catch put the ball at the 17. An Escanaba offside made it first-and-10 at the 12 as the quarter ended.

Pond ran to the 9. On third down Leonard threw a quick pass to Blackburn, Evan Brown sealed the corner, and Blackburn scored from 9 yards out. The extra point was no good, but Marquette had the lead at 13-10.

Escanaba got the ball back and drove again. Bichler ran for 9, then for a first down at the Marquette 42. Tyler Hendrickson held him to 6 on the next one. Connor Asgaard broke off a run to the Marquette 17. And then the drive died the same way the first one had: Ison gained 3, threw incomplete, and Hendrickson met Bichler 5 yards deep in the backfield on third down. The field-goal attempt that followed hit the upright.

Two trips inside the Marquette 20 in one half. Three points.

Marquette punted, and Escanaba went backward again -- an Ison keeper stopped by Keough for a 2-yard loss, then a fourth-and-3 at the Marquette 49 on which Hoffman and Rocky Sholl dropped Ison for a loss. Turnover on downs.

From the Escanaba 49, the Sentinels went the distance. Leonard threw an out route to Blackburn for a first down at the 32. A scrap after the next play produced offsetting personal fouls. Leonard found Evan Brown for 9 to the 20, Faccio ran for a first down inside the 10, and Blackburn took a jet sweep 8 yards to the end zone. Leonard’s kick made it 20-10.

That was Blackburn’s third touchdown of the half -- two catches and a run -- and it came in a game in which he was also making tackles.

Marquette’s last possession of the half ended badly. On a double pass with 35 seconds left, Keough threw into double coverage and Eli Englund intercepted it at the Marquette 46. Escanaba ran one play and the half ended.

The third quarter settles it

Clements returned the second-half kickoff to the Marquette 42, and a false start immediately made it first-and-15. Faccio ran 14 behind a pulling guard and tackle, then split two defenders on the next carry and was run down at the 13 by Gunnar Lamarche, a tackle that saved a touchdown.

The drive then went backward. Pond gained 1, a wheel route to Keough went through his hands, and on third down half the Marquette offensive line did not come out of its stance. Leonard kept the ball and lost 3. It was fourth-and-12 from the 15.

Marquette kept the offense on the field, and Leonard threw a fade to Clements in the corner of the end zone. Leonard’s kick made it 27-10.

Escanaba’s next drive lost 20 yards to a personal foul for contact after the play and a false start, and ended in a punt. Marquette took over at midfield, and Leonard hit Blackburn on a quick pass that Clements blocked into a 34-yard gain to the Escanaba 15. Faccio carried three times from there, the last from the 2. Leonard’s kick made it 34-10 with 5:45 left in the third.

The kickoff came off the side of Leonard’s foot and functioned as an accidental onside kick, which Escanaba recovered at its own 38. The Eskymos went three-and-out.

Marquette got the ball at its own 18 and moved to the Escanaba 13 before the quarter’s last mistake. On third down Leonard’s pass was batted at the line and intercepted, and the defender returned it to the Escanaba 35 with nine seconds left.

The fourth

Escanaba had the ball at midfield to start the quarter and could not use it. Ison completed a 5-yard pass, Asgaard ran for 2, and on fourth-and-2 from the Marquette 43 Clayton Edwards stopped Ison in the backfield. Marquette took over with 10:48 to play.

Faccio ran for 3. Keough took an option pitch, made two defenders miss and gained 10. Faccio ran for 4. Then Leonard looked deep and found Clements, who had nobody near him, for 34 yards. Leonard’s kick made it 41-10.

Escanaba then put together the strangest possession of the night. Ison completed a pass to the 41 and Bichler ran for a first down at the Marquette 47. Two Marquette penalties -- pass interference, then roughing the passer on the following snap -- moved the ball to the Marquette 17 without the Eskymos gaining a yard. From there they threw four straight incompletions. Turnover on downs with 6:46 left.

Marquette ran the rest of it out with Pond. He broke a 36-yard run to the Escanaba 29, Leonard threw to Braylon Zdunek for a first down at the 16, and a holding penalty pushed the Sentinels back to first-and-20. Pond cut it back up the middle and ran 26 yards for the touchdown. Leonard’s kick made it 48-10 with about 2:30 left, and the 38-point margin put the clock on continuous running.

Escanaba got one more possession and reached the Marquette 28. Kiplin Hartman broke up two passes in the end zone, the second on the last play of the game.

What it means

Marquette is 3-2 and 3-0 in the Big North Conference, its best stretch of the season. Escanaba, held to 181 yards, is 1-4 and 1-3.

The line Mason kept coming back to was the one in front of Leonard, who was not sacked.

"He’s got to have guys to throw to, he’s got to have time to throw," Mason said. "He’s reading the defense so well right now. He’s understanding the concepts and the progressions, and he’s doing a fantastic job."

Mason traced the change to a personnel move three games ago, when Caleb Amann was put in at center.

"Since that day our offensive line has just clicked," he said. "It’s basically the same guys, minus one. You’ve got to have all five playing as a unit, and they’re doing that right now. They’re communicating, they’re talking."

Marquette was not clean. It threw two interceptions, took a 15-yard personal foul for a hit on a receiver on an incomplete pass, and gave Escanaba 30 more yards on back-to-back penalties in the fourth quarter. Escanaba did not turn the ball over once.

But after the opening touchdown the Eskymos reached the Marquette 20 three times and scored three points.

Next is a bus ride. Marquette plays at Alpena on Friday, a trip below the bridge, and Mason said he does not mind it.

"It is good to have those," he said. "It does bring your team together. They spend a lot of time together."

Kickoff is 7 p.m.

Statistics compiled from the Fox Sports Marquette broadcast and are unofficial.