Lyons upends Warriors in OT
Sports reporter
With only 4:02 remaining Friday in the Marion-Lyons varsity football game at Warrior Stadium, Warrior fans might have felt they had cause to start celebrating.
Marion punter Nick Klenda had just nailed a spectacular punt, pinning winless Lyons on its own 6-yard line. The Warriors held a 28-14 advantage on the scoreboard. The final minutes looked to be mere formality.
Ninety-four yards from the goal line, and with time running out, Lyons head coach Cory Brack huddled with his players on the sideline.
"I challenged our kids. I said are you going to be the team of the past, or are you going to turn the corner here," Brack said. "I questioned their character and their heart."
On the next play from scrimmage, Lions receiver Dane Kepka turned the corner. Taking a pass from quarterback Jake Craig in full stride along the left sideline, he raced 94 yards for a touchdown.
With Craig's extra point, Lyons had taken only 13 seconds to cut the deficit to 28-21, and a nightmarish ending for the Warriors was in full swing.
The Lions came right back with a stunning 10-play, 80-yard drive in the game's final two minutes, culminating with running back Payton Griffitt's 15-yard touchdown draw through the middle of the Warrior defense with 16 seconds remaining. The extra point by Craig sent the game to overtime.
Warrior hopes were buoyed on the first play of the extra period when Marion quarterback Mitchell Leppke fired a 10-yard touchdown pass to receiver Calvin Jeffrey. But kicker Toby Brauer's PAT attempt sailed just left of the uprights, keeping the score 34-28 and leaving an opening for the Lions.
Lyons wasted no time leveling the score when Craig fired his own 10-yard scoring strike to Kepka on the Lions' first overtime play. Craig completed the Lions' miraculous comeback when his extra point kick split the uprights, giving his team a 35-34 win.
"I don't know if we relaxed when we were up by 14 and had them back on their own six or what," reflected Marion head coach Grant Thierolf. "They're pretty athletic, and they threw more against us than other teams they've played."
The Warriors' inability to stop a Lyons passing attack that piled up 256 yards was a key factor in the Lions' victory.
"They had a strong quarterback, good, athletic receivers, and we didn't put pressure on the quarterback," Thierolf said. "When you combine those three things, you give a team the opportunity to have a big game against you."
Brack said there wasn't anything in particular about the Warrior defense that his team tried to exploit.
"They just gave us a lot of room on first downs where we had some room to work some things in the passing game," he said.
The comeback by the Lions overshadowed good play throughout most of the game by the Warriors.
"I thought for 44 minutes we played very well," said Thierolf, "but unfortunately the game is 48 minutes long."
Marion bolted to a 14-0 first quarter lead by taking advantage of excellent field position set up by fumble recoveries.
The Warriors' first drive started at the Lyons 32-yard line. Leppke, Austin Hager, and Emmanuel Jackson took turns rushing the ball toward the end zone, with Leppke scoring on a 1-yard plunge with 4:35 showing on the clock.
Thirteen seconds before the end of the quarter, the Warriors struck again after recovering a Lion fumble on the Lyons 13. Jackson toted the ball on a 1-yard run, and Brauer's extra point made the score 14-0.
Lyons pulled to within 14-7 on a Kepka 5-yard run with 1:07 remaining before halftime, but the Warriors answered back immediately.
Kyle Hett took the ensuing kickoff and muscled his way across midfield to the Lyons 42. Three plays later, from the Lyons 27, Leppke hit Jeffrey in the corner of the end zone with 40 seconds remaining to lift Marion to a 20-7 halftime edge.
Lyons drew first blood in the second half, with Kepka scoring on a 5-yard sweep at the 2:13 mark of the third quarter, drawing the Lions to within six points, 20-14.
Jeffrey gave the Warriors excellent field position early in the fourth quarter when he stepped in front of a Craig pass and returned it to the Lyons 23. Five plays later, Hager dived in from the 1, and Leppke's 2-point conversion run upped the score to 28-14 with just over eight minutes remaining in the game.
The Warriors' next game is Friday when they travel to Hillsboro to take on the Trojans at Tabor College. Game time is 7 p.m.
