Broncos buck Warriors, 34-7

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ANDREW OTTOSON
On Friday night, the Marion High School football team went up against a Remington team striving for a playoff berth and came up short of a victory, 34-7.

Remington (7-1) relied on the arm of quarterback Cole Cherryholmes to move the football as the Marion defense stifled the Broncos’ ground game.

Cherryholmes connected with Jake Thiessen and Scott Ryan for touchdown passes in the first half.

But by holding the Broncos to less than 2.7 yards per carry, the Warriors kept the game within reach.

“We held Remington to 82 yards rushing with 46 of those coming on one play, (but) we never put any pressure on the QB and that limited our success in stopping their passing game,” coach Grant Thierolf said.

The Warriors fell behind on Remington’s first possession, and a power outage with 6:24 remaining in the first delayed Marion’s first offensive possession for 45 minutes.

Down 7-0 and looking to answer, Marion drove the ball efficiently from its own 27 to the Broncos’ 27.

A penalty on third-and-four negated a five-yard Derek Riggs run that would have given Marion a first-and-10 at the Bronco 16.

Instead, the Warriors were left with a third-and-nine, and Remington forced consecutive incompletions as the first quarter expired.

The second quarter looked, in some ways, like a replay of the first as Cherryholmes connected with his second touchdown pass before Marion drove deep into Bronco territory.

But the Warriors’ second drive ended with a miscue resulting in lost yards that brought up an unfavorable third-and-long.

“We moved the ball pretty well on offense most of the night but we have to be able to finish the drives we start,” Thierolf said.

One of the highlights for Marion came when Calvin Jeffrey picked off Cherryholmes to end the second quarter.

Marion received the kickoff to open the second half, but a fumble on the first play of the third quarter set up Remington’s third score.

Benefitted by the short field, Bronco runningback Wayne Bennett rumbled five yards to make it 20-0 in favor of the visitors.

A 51-yard kickoff return by Kyle Hett, a 15-yard burst from Riggs and an 11-yard jaunt by Emmanuel Jackson put the Warriors in position to get on the scoreboard.

“I was pleased with all three of our runningbacks. We are starting to develop a little better timing and now we just have to get more consistent,” Thierolf said.

Jackson pounded the ball in from a yard out to make the score 20-7 with 6:58 left in the third.

But from there it was all Remington, as the Broncos added 14 points off of Marion turnovers for a final score of 34-7.

Jason Hett, in his first game back from a hand injury sustained in the first week of the season, recorded 11 tackles and two pass deflections.

Hett also got in on a 22-yard completion from Mitchell Leppke that was the Warriors’ biggest gain from scrimmage.

Coming-Without a chance to move beyond district play, the Warriors (2-6) will complete their season Thursday when they travel to Hesston (6-2), who has clinched the District 11 title.

Game time is 2 p.m.

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