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Marshall falls to Chiefs By BARRY BURLESON
Editor  | Photo by Barry Burleson
Watch out ref
MA’s Hank Owens (right) collides with one of the game officials on a quarterback keeper Friday night. |
Marshall Academy had some opportunities to stay in the game with Magnolia Heights Friday night in Senatobia. But lack of execution, penalties and four lost fumbles did not help the cause. The
Class AAA Chiefs led 14-6 at the half, increased the margin to 35-6 in
the second half and knocked off Class AA Marshall 35-19. “I
thought we played pretty good in the first half,” said Keith Wicker,
head coach of the Patriots. “Then we started messing up. Magnolia
Heights is a good team. You can’t give them anything. “I don’t know if we would have beaten them if we would have played perfectly, but we certainly would have had a better shot.” Marshall
Academy’s Kevin Fitzpatrick opened the game with a 50-yard kickoff
return to the Magnolia Heights 35. Two plays later the Chiefs’ Taz
Zettergren intercepted a pass.  | Photo by Barry Burleson
Making his move
Marshall ball-carrier Chase Ferrell (36) tries to dodge Magnolia Heights’ Taz Zettergren in action Friday night. |
Two plays after that, Chase Ferrell of MA recovered a Magnolia Heights fumble at the Chiefs’ 15. The
Patriots could only move 7 yards to the 8. Chase Carpenter kicked a
24-yard field goal to put the visitors up 3-0 with 8:47 to go in the
first period. The Chiefs then unleashed their
clock-eating ground game, led by quarterback Mac McDonald’s keepers.
The 10-play, six-minute drive ended with Zettergren’s 7-yard carry to
the end zone at the 2:03 mark of the first. Peyton Smith kicked the
extra point. MA jumped offsides three times in that Magnolia Heights possession. “We have to stop that mess - just undisciplined,” Wicker said. Marshall
put together a long drive of its own on its next possession.
Quarterback Hank Owens ran for a first down and threw to John Tomlinson
for another. The Pats appeared to have the perfect pass play called to
score from the Chiefs’ 37 but to no avail. “That
missed opportunity hurt us,” Wicker said. “That could have been a
turning point for us. We need to execute plays like that.” The drive ended on a fumble at the Magnolia Heights 24. The
Chiefs then put together another 10-play march, this one going 76 yards
and taking five minutes off the clock in the second quarter. McDonald
carried on seven of the 10 plays and then threw to Ben Billingsley for
the 31-yard touchdown. Smith added the kick. It was 14-3 with 5:47 left
in the second quarter. MA bounced back to get
three more points before the half. Tomlinson earned a big first on
fourth and less than a yard. Jake Delashmit and Owens later had
first-down runs. But the drive bogged down at the Magnolia Heights 24,
and Carpenter booted a 40-yard field goal with 31 seconds to go in the
first half. The Chiefs struck again on their
first possession of the second half. McDonald had two runs of 31 yards
each and later found Wesley Bolton over the middle for a 2-yard scoring
strike. It was 21-6 with 9:26 to go in the third. “That quarterback (McDonald) makes them go - no doubt,” Coach Wicker said. The Patriots fumbled the ball away on the first play of its next possession. “We had problems with the center-quarterback exchange and we have to work on that this week,” Wicker said. After
the fumble recovery, the Chiefs used a 15-yard flag on the Pats and a
14-yard scoring run by Zettergren to pad their advantage. Smith’s kick
made it 28-6 at the 8:25 mark of the third. The two teams next swapped turnovers. MA fumbled the ball away again. Then Elgin Lafever picked off a Magnolia Heights pass. Magnolia Heights’ last touchdown came on Billingsley’s 3-yard carry with 11:56 left in the fourth. Smith added the extra point. The
Patriots got two late scores - Owens’ 46-yard run with 2:37 to go and a
33-yard pass from Owens to Fitzpatrick with just 14 seconds remaining.
A try-for-two failed after the first of those scores, and Carpenter
kicked the extra point after the second. The Pats
ran the ball 32 times for 187 yards and were seven of 15 passing for 96
yards. Owens gained 103 yards on 11 carries. Fitzpatrick rushed for 77
yards on eight carries. The Chiefs rushed the ball 43 times for 219 yards. They were six of eight passing for 82 yards. MA’s top tackler was Ferrell with seven, while Dustin Allen had six. The
private school Patriots host public school Falkner this Friday night.
Both teams are 1-1. The Eagles beat Alcorn Central in week one and lost
to rival Walnut last Thursday night. The Pats beat the Eagles 21-12 in
2009 - the first meeting ever between the schools. “They’re
a solid football team,” Coach Wicker said. “They have basically all
their starters back from last year. They’re big in the line. We have a
lot of work ahead of us this week to get ready.” |
