 Marion, Ill. - Football is a game of little things. Friday night, several little things added up to one big thing. That one big thing was too much to overcome.
Visiting Granite City took advantage of a handful of mistakes, turning those mistakes into a 26-7 halftime lead on the way to a 33-20 win over the host Marion Wildcats in the season opening game for both teams.
"There is no one big thing in football," said Marion coach Kerry Martin. "It's a million little things in football, and sometimes those things stand out on nights like tonight."
For the Wildcats a lot of those little things came on the offensive side of the ball, were missed blocks and missed assignments kept the Marion defense on the field for much of the first quarter. Marion ran just eight offensive plays in the first period, netting zero total yards on offense. The Wildcats didn't get a first down until the middle of the second period.
"We did not have a first down in the entire first quarter and they just had the ball and we got tired," Martin said. "I knew the first two or three drives when we didn't get a first down that we were putting our defense in a bad situation."
Meanwhile, Granite City didn't really cash in until late in the period, when Troy Fox fourth-and-one handoff, and scampered 38 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead. The play came after the first of three Granite City interceptions.
The Warriors added to that lead early in the second quarter on a 2-yard bootleg run by quarterback Lavonce James.
A fumble led to Granite City's third score, a 67-yard Fox run which made the score 18-0 with 3:27 to go in the first half. If the Warriors had a weakness in the first half, it was conversions, where Granite City missed on its first three.
Just more than a minute later, Gary Dudek picked off Dalton Robertson and ran 43 yards for a 26-0 Granite City lead.
The Wildcats finally got on the board with 1:18 to go in the half. Terranius Stanley's 95-yard kickoff return was called back by an illegal block 20 yards behind the play.
However Marion had the ball at the Granite City 29, and after a nifty sideline catch by Keith Haack for a 24-yard completion to the five, Will Luth plunged in from a yard out to cut the lead to 26-7. That was the score at halftime.
Granite City got its final score early in the second half, taking advantage of another Marion turnover. The Warriors went 20 yards on three plays, scoring on a 4-yard run by Darin Walker to make the score 33-7.
Marion got the last two touchdowns. The first was a 5-yard run by Billy Stephens that capped of a 78-yard drive aided by a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty, a 15-yard run by Robertson and a fourth-and-3 run for 9 yards by Zach Irwin.
The last score came in the fourth quarter, when the Wildcats went 69 yards 12 plays converting two fourth downs along the way before Stanley scampered in from 2 yards out.
That cut the lead to 33-20 with 6:36 left, and when Stephens recovered Jon Paul Taylor's perfectly executed onside kick, the Wildcats seemed to be in business. But mistakes came back again, including a 19-yard holding penalty, a missed block that caused a 10-yard loss by Stanley, and a delay of game that suddenly had Marion facing a third-and-44 situation it couldn't overcome.
"That was a great thing to see, the character of the kids fighting back," Martin said. "Even late in the game you still felt like we might have a chance. They battled back and gave this football team a chance to win tonight and I'm proud of them for that."
Marion did manage 273 yards in total offense, 156 coming via the arm of Robertson. In his first varsity start, the junior signal caller was 14-for-30 with three interceptions.
Robertson also led the Wildcats in rushing with 41 yards. Luth added 40 yards.
Fox led all rushers with 168 yards, only one after intermission. Granite City, which had 313 yards in total offense, managed just 63 yards and four first downs in the second half. Go to Source
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