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Warriors eliminated from playoffs with loss to Remington

Sports reporter

Cole Cherryholmes lived up to the hype.

Unfortunately for Marion High School, he was on the other side of the field Friday night, as the talented Remington Bronco quarterback passed for 360 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions, in a 36-12 victory.

"He's as good as we've ever seen," MHS head coach Grant Thierolf said. "He just throws the ball where it needs to be every time."

Maybe not every time, but Thierolf wasn't far off.

Nearly half of his 17 incompletions were drops, and he hurt Marion early on the first drive of the game with a 53-yard pass down to the Warrior 15 on the second play of the game.

The Marion defense held on that drive, but after a punt, Cherryholmes connected on a 32-yard pass to Jake Thiessen with seven minutes, 32 seconds left in the first quarter.

A Cherryholmes one-yard run with 1:05 left in the first, and a two-point conversion, made the score 16-0 in favor of Remington.

Playing without starting running back, and big bruiser, Austin Hager, sophomore Drew Maddox was thrust into the backfield along with sophomore Sheldon Boone.

Maddox actually got the Warriors on the board with a 15-yard run with 6:04 in the left in the first half.

Cherryholmes had just completed another touchdown pass before the Maddox score, and Remington led 22-6.

For the game, Maddox had 83 yards and the one score on 12 carries. Boone led the attack with 116 yards, and one score late in the game, on 19 carries.

"Drew did a nice job coming in," Thierolf said. "He gives us a little more speed, and I thought he did a nice job for his first varsity game."

Thierolf was glad to see the Warriors could run the ball (along with quarterback Mitchell Leppke's 48 yards the Warriors had 243 on the ground), but wanted to see it earlier in the game.

"We're just really not as physical as we need to be right now," he said. "We don't start the game with a tough nastiness about us, and that's probably coaching."

The nastiness shone in the second quarter when senior lineman Brett Billings smacked into Cherryholmes after he fumble the snap, and recovered the ball inside the Bronco 25 with just less than six minutes in the half.

However, the drive ended when sophomore Marc Washington was tripped up on fourth-and-four just before turning the corner toward a first down.

The Warrior momentum was hurt after not converting, and it was all but erased at the start of the second half.

It took the Broncos all of 40 seconds to score in the second half on a Wayne Bennett six-yard run, widening the gap to 28-6.

Boone added his touchdown run with 19 seconds left in the third quarter, but after no scoring in the fourth, the game ended in favor of Remington by 24 points.

Thiessen finished the game with seven catches, 153 yards, and a score, while Kyle Berg had seven for 100 yards and a score as well.

Cherryholmes hit six receivers.

Theirolf said it was more of the all-star quarterback doing what he normally does, than the Warriors not executing.

"He just gets them going," Thierolf said. "He gives them the ability to make plays."

Marion's opponent next week, Hesston, is the only team to defeat Remington this season, and that was with Cherryholmes on the bench with a separated shoulder.

"We're running into a very fine football team," Thierolf said. "But everyone in our district is a fine team."

The Swathers are a top-five 3A team, and Marion was eliminated from the state playoffs with the loss to Remington. Still, Theirolf said his players will give everything they have Thursday in the final home game of the season.

"The seniors will lead us next week," he said. "They've played hard for four years and they've earned the right to get in there and finish the season out like we expect them to. And there is no doubt in my mind they will do that."

Leppke added 66 yards through the air, while sophomore Nick Klenda led the team with eight total tackles.

Justin Heidebrecht contributed seven tackles, while Chase Carlson and Derek Riggs each had six.

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