By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games. It was a game of Marion dominance, it was a game of Marion listlessness.

It may have felt like two games, but in that case, Marion won the game that counted.

A 28-0 halftime lead proved to be more than enough for Marion to hold on against Remington despite the Warriors turning the ball over on every second half possession but one — the last one, when the clock ran out. The Warriors defense held the Broncos offense in check and secured a 28-16 victory for the home team.

“You process it almost as two games — great first half, second half, you know, we never punted,” head coach Grant Thierolf said jocularly, referring to his team’s eight turnovers.

“We turned the ball over (eight) times tonight and still won. That’s hard to do.”

Thierolf continued by praising his defense, which only allowed one touchdown in the game. The other occurred when on a Marion run play, Remington lineman Logan Scott emerged from a scrum with the ball and galloped 71 yards with surprising speed, given his lineman’s build.

By that point, however, the game’s outcome had been decided.

Marion came out with heightened intensity after Thierolf admonished his team’s pregame focus following last week’s loss to Trinity Hutchinson. Thierolf was impressed with his team’s start.

“That was surprising because I thought we were dead during pregame,” Thierolf said.

The intensity heightened once the Warriors hit the field, however, and freshman quarterback Jack Schneider scored the game’s first points on an 83-yard touchdown run on Marion’s first possession. Schneider would finish with 147 of Marion’s 275 rushing yards on the night.

It was running back Adam Janzen though, who punished the Broncos on the ground the most. The senior carried 21 times for 121 yards, and scored each of Marion’s next three touchdowns, all from within five yards of the end zone.

Janzen also grabbed an interception early in the second quarter that led to Marion’s third touchdown, which made the game 20-0.

A crucial play — though it didn’t seem so at the time — was an interception Schneider threw near the end of the first half. The interception was called back due to a roughing the passer penalty. Two Schneider completions later, the Warriors were in Janzen’s territory, and he pushed the score to 28-0 with less than 30 seconds remaining.

Schneider was a guilty party on several of Marion’s turnovers, including his first three interceptions of the season. Thierolf knew these types of games would happen. He said he’d rather have them in a win than in a loss.

“Our quarterback’s learning the throws that he can make and the throws that maybe he can’t make, and we’re learning that as coaches, and the receivers are getting better at running routes,” Thierolf said. “We knew it was just going to be a long learning process there. You hope it’s fast, but it’s going to take some time still.”

For its part, the Marion defense didn’t allow Remington to take advantage of turnovers, and caused two of its own.

“We gave our defense some short fields, and I thought they played very respectably all game long,” Thierolf said.