Warriors shut out Ellinwood
Sports reporter
Riding on the coattails of a smothering Warrior defense, Marion's opportunistic offense lighted up the scoreboard with a 19-point second-half outburst to defeat the Ellinwood Eagles, 25-0, Friday evening at Warrior Stadium.
Marion held a tenuous 6-0 lead with five minutes remaining in the third quarter by virtue of an 11-yard Austin Hager touchdown run on the Warriors' second possession of the game, which started on the Ellinwood 38.
A scant 10 minutes later, Marion had turned a close game into a walk- away with three touchdowns in four possessions.
Sophomore quarterback Mitchell Leppke capped Marion's longest offensive drive of the game with a dazzling 21-yard broken play scramble straight through the middle of the Eagles' stunned defense. The score came at the 2:35 mark of the third quarter, and the PAT attempt failed, making the score 12-0.
The teams traded fumbles on their next possessions, leaving Ellinwood with its back against the wall at its own five-yard line. They moved the ball to the 15 with the help of a Marion pass interference penalty, then Eagle quarterback Jason Wahlmeier threw a pass straight into the waiting arms of Warrior defensive back Calvin Jeffrey at the Ellinwood 33. Jeffrey returned the pick all the way to the Ellinwood 11.
On third-and-seven from the Eagle 8, Mitchell Leppke dropped back to pass and made his first Warrior completion count big: a perfectly-placed touchdown strike to Jeffrey in the right corner of the end zone. Toby Brauer tacked on the extra point, giving the Warriors a 19-0 cushion with 7:54 remaining in the game.
It took only seconds for the Warriors to shock the Eagles once again. Eagle Glenn Whitaker took the ensuing kickoff at his own 15, but Marion's Emmanuel Jackson stripped him of the ball at the 25, and an alert Riley Ross recovered for the Warriors. On the first play from scrimmage, Leppke and Jeffrey hooked up for another touchdown pass in the right side of the end zone to make the final score 25-0 in favor of the Warriors.
The game might have taken a different turn at the end of the first half if not for an outstanding goal line stand by the Warrior defense after Ellinwood had taken nearly eight minutes to drive from its own 31 to the Warrior five-yard line. Chase Williams and Mark Kukuk led the Marion charge in stuffing two inside runs for a net gain of just one yard. On third down from the four, Wahlmeier sprinted to his left, but fumbled when he was caught from behind by Jackson. Brad Klenda covered the ball for the Warriors, ending Ellinwood's only scoring threat of the game. The Warriors ran two plays to end the half and preserve their 6-0 lead.
The Warrior defense allowed Ellinwood to cross midfield only twice the entire game, and held the visitors to 120 yards of total offense. Controlling the line of scrimmage for most of the game, the Warriors forced six Ellinwood fumbles and one interception. Jackson, Klenda, Jacob Czarnowsky, and Ross all recovered fumbles for the Warriors.
While Leppke and Jeffrey provided the late game offensive fireworks, Kyle Hett proved to be a terror for the Eagle defense, accounting for more than half of Marion's 253 yards of total offense by running for 130 yards on 21 carries. Hager had 52 yards on nine carries to go along with his first half touchdown run. Leppke completed only two of six passes he attempted, but both were for touchdowns.
Following the game, Marion head coach Grant Thierolf credited this goal line stand as a critical turning point in the game. "We bowed our necks and we didn't let them in," Thierolf said. He indicated the momentum swing the stand created set the stage for his team's second-half success.
Thierolf had words of praise for his sophomore quarterback, Mitchell Leppke, who accounted for three of the Warriors' four touchdowns. "We had to make a lot of changes," said Thierolf about the effects of losing senior starter Jason Hett to a hand injury in the Halstead game. He was encouraged not only by Leppke's performance but also his attitude. "One thing Mitchell doesn't lack is confidence," said Thierolf in describing Leppke's adaptation to the role of starter.
Thierolf said in spite of some miscues, the most important thing to come out of the evening's game was getting the win. "We needed to learn how to finish off an opponent, and we did that," he said.
The Warriors will take their 1-1 record on the road this Friday with a game against Sterling. Game time is 7 p.m.
JV splits games
The Marion High School junior varsity football team traveled Monday evening to Ellinwood and came away with a 14-6 victory over the Eagles.
The Warriors scored on their opening drive on an Isaac Hett two-yard touchdown plunge, and a successful two-point conversion gave Marion an early 8-0 lead.
Ellinwood matched the Warrior touchdown late in the first quarter, but a failed conversion attempt preserved an 8-6 Marion lead. Another Hett touchdown on a two-yard run pushed the score to its final margin of 14-6.
The junior Warriors emulated the late first half performance turned in by the varsity defense against Ellinwood Friday night when Mitch Cady snuffed an Eagle drive deep in Warrior territory with an interception. Randy Carlson duplicated the feat by intercepting an Ellinwood pass with a minute left in the game, stopping an Eagle bid to tie the game.
The win evened the JV record at 1-1, balancing an 8-6 loss at Halstead Sept. 5. The context was a defensive struggle in which the Warriors didn't manage a touchdown until only 18 seconds remained in the game, and lost when the conversion attempt failed.
The next JV game is 6 p.m. Monday when Marion hosts Sterling at Warrior Stadium.
