CM Football Celebrates Home Opener With Win Over Marquette In Front Of Packed House

BETHALTO – The Civic Memorial High School football team kicked off their season with a 24-3 win over Marquette Catholic in the Eagles’ home-opener. They broke in their new turf field and improved to 1-0.

It seemed as if the entire town of Bethalto came out to cheer on the Eagles on their new and improved field. CM head football coach Rick Reinhart joked around postgame sarcastically saying that there wasn’t a lot of pressure on his guys to deliver in front of that crowd.

There were estimated to be 1,000 plus in attendance.

While happy with the end result, Reinhart was annoyed with some of the mistakes his team was making throughout the game. He believes that his Eagles have a lot of things to work on.

“We have a lot of work to do. We’re nowhere close,” Reinhart said.

He holds his team up to a pretty high standard, so when the score was only 10-0 at halftime, he wasn’t the most excited about it.

The Eagles did put some more points on the board in the second half to make up for it.

CM kicked off to Marquette to begin the second half, but that didn’t stop them from immediately scoring. Senior Jace Brawner carried in a seven-yard rushing TD to make it 16-0 shortly into the third quarter. The extra point was good from freshman Bryce Davis.

The Explorers were not to be shut out though. After a long drive, they converted a 35-yard field goal attempt to make it 17-3, but only for a moment.

Senior Andrew Fondoronda scored with a 15-yard rushing TD and then Davis once again made the kick with only a couple of minutes left in the game. So, that’s how it finished 23-4.

Reinhart gave all credit to Marquette. “I’m going to tell you what. They’ve got some dudes. They’re going to be pretty good.”

It’s no secret that Marquette doesn’t have a lot of numbers. The Explorers’ head coach Leon McElrath said postgame that his side has maybe 24 guys when the team is fully healthy. He wasn’t too displeased with the way his guys played.

“It was 10-0 at halftime. We were still in the game. We were still fighting hard,” McElrath said. “They fought every bit, tooth and nail.”

These two teams met in last season’s week one matchup. It was a much more lopsided game with CM winning 48-7. So, it is a step in the right direction for Marquette. They should be able to take a lot from last night’s game, learn from it, move on, and get better.

The Explorers will be at home next Friday against Salem on September 2^nd. Marquette’s next three games will be played at home at Public School Stadium.

As for CM, this train is just getting rolling. They won their first three games last season and fully expect to do it again. They host East Alton Wood River next week and then play at Roxana after that. All three of those opponents CM beat to open their season a year ago.

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