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Warriors lose physical district match with Hesston to end season 7-2

Sports reporter

It's hard to recover from a 17-play, 72-yard opening drive, and while the Marion High School Warriors didn't Friday, they hung tough with the Hesston Swathers before falling 21-6.

Even with a 7-2 record and a division championship, MHS will not head to the playoffs after a 1-2 district record.

The district loss, combined with a victory against Hillsboro and a loss to Southeast of Saline, gave MHS third place in District XI.

While the season, and careers for nine seniors, ended with disappointment, the Warriors and coaching staff remained positive.

Head coach Grant Thierolf said he appreciated everything his seniors did for him the past four years.

"I don't know if people realize how hard these guys work," he said. "They are great representations of Marion High School. You aren't going to ask for a better group of kids."

Senior running back Casey Nelson told the rest of the team a 7-2 season is nothing to be ashamed of, and every player knew they were part of a team good enough to make the playoffs.

The state threw a tough district Marion's way, but Thierolf wasn't making excuses.

"It's nothing we can control," he said. "We can only control how hard we play."

At first Friday it looked as if Hesston was the only team playing hard, as it chewed up more than 10 minutes of the opening quarter with 17 straight running plays, the final one a touchdown by Brian Roulhac.

The Warriors went three-and-out on their first possession, giving Hesston the ball back at the start of the second quarter.

The Swathers came right back with another long drive consisting mostly of running plays to move into MHS territory.

They then dug into their bag of tricks, using a halfback pass to get down to the Marion four-yard line. Reed Hammond would score on the next play, to give Hesston a 14-0 lead with 6:48 to play in the first half.

MHS needed a big play and it got one from Nelson on the kickoff. He took the ball down the left sideline for 80 yards before being dragged down on the Hesston 10.

However, four plays later Kelsey's incomplete pass in the end zone capped off a four-play drive that resulted in just one yard for Marion as Hesston took over on downs.

"We got the ball inside the scoring area. We just weren't able to make plays," Thierolf said. "And their defense stopped us from making the plays."

However, the defense did make some plays, including forcing quarterback Andy Schmidt to fumble inside the Swather 30. Kyle Hett recovered for the Warriors, and the offense was given new life.

The Warriors took advantage driving inside the Swather 10, when MHS quarterback Josh Kelsey called his own number and scored from eight yards out.

The extra point was no good, but Marion was back in the game a 14-6 with two minutes left until halftime.

MHS kicked off, but fell victim to a special teams mishap.

Hammond took the kickoff, faked a reverse handoff, and shot down the line 80 yards for the score. Hesston reclaimed the momentum, and pushed the lead to 21-6.

The teams would head into the locker room with the score the same.

"It took the life right out us," Thierolf said. "I can't criticize the special teams tonight because they've been great all year long and they probably have won us two games this year."

The Warriors came out a different team on defense, holding the Swathers to just 62 total yards in the second half, but the offense failed to put together a scoring drive.

Kelsey was just 2-14 passing for 42 yards, and Nelson ran for just 61 yards in 21 carries. The longest run of the night for Marion was nine yards.

Thierolf knew it wasn't just his players not executing.

"We're going to give credit to Hesston because they are a find defensive football team," he said. "Nobody has run the ball against them."

Marion ran for 112 yards after averaging 207 rushing yards per game coming into the contest. Along with Nelson, Kelsey had 42 yards and a score, and Jason Hett had one carry for nine yards.

"We played as hard as we could play, but we just couldn't get that one offensive play to bust open," Thierolf said.

Senior linebacker Michael Brookens led the defense with 15 total tackles, two for a loss.

He finished the season as the Warriors' leading tackler with 62 solo, 47 assisted, and nine for a loss.

Kelsey completed his senior season passing for 678 yards, eight touchdowns, and just one interception.

Nelson ended up with 1,153 yards and 20 touchdowns, giving him 2,260 yards and 31 touchdowns the past two seasons.

The Warriors end the season with a record of 5-0 in the Mid-Central Activities Association record, and 7-2 overall.

In two years as a member of the MCAA, Marion is 9-1 in league play and 13-5 overall.

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