Marian Central junior running back Eddie Kowalczyk is happy to beat you in multiple ways.

“He’s tough, he’s real tough,” Hurricanes coach Liam Kirwan said of his 5-foot-11, 175-pounder. “He’s got big old legs, and he’s shifty. He’s certainly not easy to take down.”

Chicago Christian saw that up close Friday as Kowalczyk ran freely for 202 yards on 19 carries, scoring a pair of touchdowns and almost adding a third, as the Hurricanes blanked the Knights 43-0 on homecoming night at George Harding Field in Woodstock.

He scored the game’s opening touchdown on a 5-yard run after an opening-possession interception by junior Izayah Rosado, and he came within six yards of a 50-plus yard score when he flew down the sideline for a 49-yard run to the Knights’ 6-yard line in the second quarter.

Marian (2-3, 1-2 Chicagoland Christian Conference) was coming off a tough, 42-28 loss to Wheaton Academy in Week 4 in which the Hurricanes trailed only 27-20 in the third quarter.

Marian left no doubt Friday night.

“It felt great,” Kowalczyk said of the Hurricanes’ first CCC win of the season. “Last week was rough. We started slow, but tonight I think we started hot. Our (offensive) line came and ate. They were pancaking everyone, and they were getting every block down.

“We locked in real hard this week in practice.”

Kowalczyk, who averaged 10.6 yards a carry Friday, said he just ran out of gas on his long run in the second quarter.

“I thought I had it, and my ankle just got hit (caught by the defender) and fell,” said Kowalczyk, who had a 70-yard run against Wheaton Academy last week.

Marian ran for exactly 300 yards on 33 carries (9.09 average). Sophomore QB Colin Hernon ran for 45 yards on four attempts with two touchdowns, Rosado posted 32 yards on six carries, and Mike Schmid (21 yards) had a 6-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that put the Hurricanes up 43-0 with 10:13 remaining to start a running clock.

Hurricanes’ runners found lots of room behind the offensive line play of left tackle George Kordopitoulous, left guard Dan French, center Matt Conlon, right guard Ian Varys and right tackle Armani Massey.

Marian had trouble generating offense through the air early on, but an athletic play by Hernon in which he scrambled from deep in the Hurricanes’ territory and found junior wide receiver Wilson Jakubowicz on the sideline opened things up right before halftime.

Jakubowicz caught the ball at Marian’s 40-yard line and ran 60 yards untouched down the sideline for a 78-yard strike to give Marian a 20-0 lead heading into halftime. Before that throw, the Hurricanes were just 1-of-10 passing.

Earlier in the game, Hernon had a heads-up play on a ball that was fumbled after the snap. Hernon was still able to pick the ball up after it hit his feet and ran it in for a 6-yard score.

“The fact that [Hernon] stayed alive was special,” Kirwan said of Hernon’s scramble play before half. “Colin can get out of some plays; we’ve seen that a lot. [Jakubowicz], he’s got to the open field a lot, but not necessarily got as many touches as we’ve wanted. When he finally gets a touch and sees the open grass, he’s hard to catch.”

Defensively, the Hurricanes came up with two takeaways, both on interceptions by Rosado. Rosado and Zak Smothers each had a sack for Marian, which held Chicago Christian to 96 yards on 34 attempts (2.83 average).

Rosado picked off Chicago Christian QB Tyce Hamstra on the Knights’ first possession to set up Kowalcyzk’s first TD.

“Special day, especially coming off that loss,” Rosado said. “We were motivated. We should have won last week.”

Kirwan let his players soak in the win with the Hurricanes’ fan section after Friday’s win.

“Homecoming is always great. Excited and happy for our kids and all the students,” Kirwan said. “This is what high school football is all about: to see our kids living the dream and having fun with their classmates.”