Patriots take down Winona Christian 36-14

The winners of five of their last six games, Patriots took the show on the road to face the Stars of Winona Christian. Marshall took care of business early and wouldn’t look back, defeating Winona Christian 36- 14.

“We really needed to bounce back after a tough loss and we did! We went back to the basics trying to block and tackle,” Patriots coach Ben Durham said. “I felt like it was exactly what we needed.”

Durham was happy with what a great job the offense did up front.

“The O line paved the way all night. Hayes Henry did an excellent job of running behind his pads. He was dragging players as he ran and took in four touchdowns.”

The coach said he felt like quarterback Eli Basham showed tremendous toughness running the ball. “We also had some explosive plays through the air,” he said. “Basham had a couple of big plays and a touchdown.”

Winona had a tremendous running back, and Durham said the defense had to shut him down.

Basham had ten tackles, and Gavin Coleman had nine tackles.

“It was great to see Gavin get involved. He broke his collarbone on the last day of summer workouts,” Durham said.

The Patriots gave up two touchdowns.

“One, we blocked the punt, and they returned it for a touchdown. Then we got unlucky on a jump ball where we tied up for the ball, and they called it a touchdown,” said Durham.

The Patriots had a big play where the wide receiver got stripped on the one-yard line.

“So some very weird turn of events. But we got some momentum back heading into the last 2 games of the year which are at home,” Durham said.

The Patriots finish the rest of the regular season at home. They welcome Kirk Academy on Oct. 14.