Marion falls to Hutch Trinity, 30-6

Mason Pedersen hauls in an 18-yard pass from quarterback Jack Schneider during the third quarter of Friday?s game against Hutch Trinity.

Take away the second quarter in Marion?s battle with Hutchinson Trinity Friday night and you?d have a tie ball game.

As it was, however, the experience-laden Celtics scored 24 unanswered points in the second period, which proved to be the difference in the Warriors? 30-6 loss.

?Whereas we started a lot of young kids, they had nine or 10 senior starters on both sides of the ball,? coach Grant Thierolf said. ?They?re just a good, experienced football team that we?ve played a lot in the last couple of years, and they just beat us tonight. ?

Trinity scored on the game?s opening drive on a 54-yard touchdown run by David Thibault four plays in. The two-point conversion pass fell incomplete.

After both teams went three-and-out, Marion responded with a scoring drive that culminated in a 34-yard touchdown pass from Jack Schneider to Brad Stone. Schneider?s two-point conversion pass fell incomplete, evening the score at 6 apiece.

Back on offense, the Celtics again moved the ball downfield and threatened to score, but Peyton Heide?brecht intercepted the Celtic pass in the end zone to stifle the threat.

The first quarter ended with a Marion punt and the score locked at 6-6.

That all changed 10 seconds into the second period. On first down, Trinity?s Elias Jasso-Cardenas found daylight around the left side for a 57-yard touchdown run. The extra-point kick made it 13-6.

With momentum shifting Trinity?s way, Marion went three-and-out. On Trinity?s first play of its next drive, Jasso-Cardenas again broke free and ran untouched for a 48-yard score. With the PAT, Trinity extended its lead to 20-6 with 9:24 remaining in the half.

The Celtics added to their lead on their next possession, orchestrating a 10-play, 64-yard drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by Jasso-Cardenas. With 2:07 left in the half, Trinity led 27-6.

Again, the Marion offense struggled to find its rhythm and, with less than a minute to play, punted the ball back to the Celtics. Trinity squeezed in one final score before the break on a 31-yard field goal as time expired for 30-6 halftime lead.

?Momentum?s a big thing in sports,? Thierolf said. ?I thought that once things started going south, they went south pretty quick, and a young team sometimes doesn?t know how to respond to that. I don?t know that we responded great, but at least we came back fighting in the second half.?

Marion?s first drive of the second half included a 23-yard pass from Schneider to Corbin Wheeler, but the drive stalled.

After a defensive stop, Marion?s next drive included pass completions from Schneider to Mason Pederson and two to Jacob Baldwin. But the Warriors were stopped on fourth-and-inches.

Trinity gained all 414 yards of offense on the ground, led by Jasso-Cardenas with 250 yards. Marion, meanwhile, recorded 134 yards of total offense. Schneider was 7-for-10 for 111 yards and one touchdown. The Warriors managed 23 rushing yards, led by Seth Snelling with seven carries for 20 yards.

Kyle Palic led the defense with 21 total tackles.

?We just never could get any rhythm going offensively,? Thierolf said. ?Field position turned against us a couple of different times. That was a good football team that took advantage of all the mistakes we made and just jumped on us and made us pay.

?We challenged the kids at halftime just to come back and show that they could fight back a little bit. There aren?t any moral victories or anything like that, but our kids came back and played hard. Obviously after halftime we played a whole lot better than we did in the first half.?

Coming?Marion (1-1) will host Remington (0-2) on homecoming night Friday at 7 p.m. Remington comes into the game after a 40-0 loss to Sedgwick.

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