On the road again

On the road again

Marion looks to notch key win in Searcy

Sports Editor After playing in the friendly confines of Patriot Stadium the past two weeks, Marion will look to take its act on the road this Friday night.

Marion will play its first conference road game of the season on Friday night when it travels to play Searcy (4-1 overall, 2-0 6A-East).

For Marion head coach Jed Davis, this means getting his team’s road agenda in order.

“When we play at home, we’ll go eat our pregame meal around 3:30, but then we come back to the school and hang out in some of our carpeted classrooms and watch ‘Hard Knocks’ or something related to football,” explains the coach. “When we’re on the road, we’re on the bus basically that entire time. We make sure to take up everyone’s phones so that they can get focused on the game and the task at hand instead of getting distracted by Instagram or Snapchat or whatever.”

The trip to Searcy is right at 100 miles from Marion.

Marion (2-3 overall, 1-1 6A-East) has not won a regular- season road game since a 49-14 victory against Mountain Home on October 16, 2015, though the Pats did win a firstround playoff game at Lake Hamilton last November.

Generally speaking, teams perform better at home than on the road, though the reasons for that can be any number of things, according to Davis.

“I think one of the big things is that when you’re on the road, the accommodations aren’t nearly as nice for the visiting team,” says the third-year head coach. “When we’re at home, we’re in our turf room, we’re comfortable.

“For example, at Searcy, we actually will set up in two different locker rooms, where we’re not even together, not in one space,” Davis continues. “So that’s a little different.”

While the accommodations could make it difficult to prepare for an away game, the Lions themselves may be the bigger threat when the ball is kicked.

The Lions are coming off of a 27-20 win against West Memphis last week, Searcy’s fifth straight win against the Blue Devils. The Lions have also won four straight meetings with Marion.

The reason why is no secret to Davis.

“The best way to describe them is that they do the little things right, and they don’t beat themselves,” he says. “I feel like they’re not at Greenwood’s level, but they kind of look like that. They’re not the biggest team, not the fastest team. But they don’t make mistakes, they make you beat them.”

Searcy’s offense will go on the backs of their two best offensive playmakers: Running back Camron Washington and quarterback Mason Schucker.

Schucker transferred to Searcy in the offseason, and he stands out on film.

“He was the quarterback at Clarksville last year. He was an All-stater as a 10th grader, and now his dad is the new athletic director at Searcy,” Davis says of Searcy’s signal caller. “He can really sling the football. He’s a good hand, a real good hand. Their offensive line is very senior-laden. They’re very big up front, and they really remind me of Wynne. Not a lot of teams can get pressure on that quarterback because in addition to that line, they also leave a tight end and an H-back in to block. That makes for a two-receiver route, but they feel like they’ll get enough time to throw the ball too.”

Davis said that Searcy also utilizes a lot of RPOs (runpass options). Marion has seen a lot of 43 defensive fronts during the first five weeks of the season, but that will change on Friday night as Searcy will line up in a base 3-4 defense (3 down linemen and 4 linebackers).

“They don’t blitz much, and their main thing is they keep everything in front of them,” says Davis. “They want to see if you can dinkand- dunk for 3 or 4 yards a pop and to see if you can do it consistently for 70 or 80 yards, and that’s tough to do at any level. It’s totally possible to do it once or twice a game, have a 13- or 14-play drive, but over and over again is tough.”

Kickoff in Searcy is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game can be heard on the radio at 92.5 FM.

Marion returns home on Friday, October 14 when they host the Mountain Home Bombers for Homecoming.

By Chuck Livingston