Staff writer
The Marion High School football team controlled every facet of its game Friday night, shutting Inman out 35-0.
The Warriors held their opponent to 37 yards of total offense. Head coach Grant Thierolf said it was their best team performance yet.
“I think our offensive and defensive lines dominated tonight,” he said. “They dominated us last year, and our kids realized if we’re going to step forward we need to win games against good opponents.”
After a Marion punt on the game’s first possession, the Teutons ran for a first down on their first play, then another three plays later on fourth-and-2. Those were the only first downs Inman would gain.
A bad snap on the next fourth down gave Marion the ball at the Inman 26-yard line. Quarterback Taylor Heidebrecht soon after ran for a 14-yard touchdown with 2 minutes left in the first quarter.
Two possessions later, Heidebrecht scored again from 4 yards out, giving the Warriors a 14-0 advantage going into halftime.
A tough start only got rougher for Inman at the beginning of the third quarter.
A Marion touchback gave the Teutons the ball at the 20, to which they ran for no gain on first down. A Morgan Wheeler-caused fumble pushed Inman backward, followed by a delay of game call.
After a short run on third-and-22, the Warriors blocked the punt, and John Nordquist fell on top of the ball in the end zone.
Marion took little time scoring again after another Inman three-and-out.
On the offense’s first play of the second half, Heidebrecht kept the read-option fake, ran up the middle, and cut back across the field to outrace defenders on a 46-yard touchdown run.
Heidebrecht finished the night running for 85 yards on nine carries, with three touchdowns.
“I felt like you could drive a truck through some of those holes,” he said.
Marion would score once more, on an 18-yard run by Adam Janzen in the fourth quarter, to bring the final score to 35-0.
Janzen led the team with 125 yards on 23 carries. Caleb Williams also rushed for 45 yards on six carries.
“He’s a kid who goes hard every play, all the time, and we just love coaching him,” Thierolf said of Janzen. “A lot of our kids do that.”
Heidebrecht said the offense has improved since the first game of the season, each player doing what they needed to do to move the ball.
“I think we’ll have maybe one loss in the future, if that,” he said.
The Warriors will play next at 7 p.m. Friday at Horton.