Staff writer
With a half of a second remaining in the game, Dillon Richmond completed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Dakin Ledford to supplant Sterling, on the road, 24-22, Monday Sept. 24.
The Warrior junior varsity football squad defeated three teams — Sterling, Hoisington, and Southeast of Saline — in the last minute of each game. The Warriors defeated SES in overtime 24-18 in the last game of the season to earn a 7-1 record.
Against the Trojans, Marion scored on the final drive of the game to tie the score. The Warriors then went for the two-point conversion and were stopped to send the game into overtime. The Warriors scored in overtime to win the game.
“We never practiced a point after TD,” JV head coach Mark Meyer said. “We get Thursday to run plays with the JV. We never had time to practice the kicking game with the JV.”
Meyer said that Hoisington’s JV team hadn’t been beaten in the last two years. With less than a minute left in the game, the Warriors, playing at Hoisington, blocked a Cardinal punt. The ball popped up in the air and a well-positioned Warrior caught the ball and ran toward the Cardinal end zone. He was tackled at the 1-yard line, but the Warriors were able to scamper in for the score on the next play to knock out Hoisington, 18-6.
The Warriors only lost to Wichita Collegiate. Meyer said the reason for the team’s success was that the players continued to improve their football fundamentals — tackling, blocking, and general aggressiveness. While the team was more laden with talented juniors this year because many seniors held key spots on varsity, Meyer said that almost all of his players performed well when they were given playing time.
“I told all my guys that you’ve got to get your reps when you’re running scout team (practice) defense or offense,” Meyer said. “The kids executed plays when we needed to score.”
Meyer highlighted the play of a few of his players as particularly outstanding.
He said that junior Les Rigs played well at linebacker and junior Jordan Versch made some plays at defensive back and wide receiver. He said that sophomore Corey Hiebert was a nice linebacker, sophomore Jon Tacha did a nice job at defensive tackle, and sophomore defensive and offensive lineman Andrew Kjellin really made progress.
More than any particular play or player, Meyer was impressed by the improvement that every player showed moving up from middle school to high school. He said that the freshmen this year didn’t win a game in middle school.
“The big thing for us is that the kids have been successful at this level,” Meyer said. “It’s not because of poor coaching at the middle school level; it’s a tribute to how hard these kids work.”