Patriots set to battle with Fighting Indians on the road

Patriots set to battle with Fighting Indians on the road

The Marion Patriots should look a lot different this week in Jackson, Missouri than they did last week in Marion

sports@theeveningtimes.com

A week after the Marion Patriots (0-1 overall, 0-0 6A Conference) hosted a dominating ground game from the Wynne Yellowjackets (1-0), the team is ready for a completely different experience, traveling two and a half hours to Jackson, Missouri to face the ariel attack of the Jackson Fighting Indians (2-1).

“It couldn’t be more polar opposites. That’s for sure,” said Marion head coach Jed Davis.

Last week at home, Marion’s secondary faced Wynne quarterback Luke Chapman who only put up four passes on the evening, allowing running back TaVon Hicks to do most of the work with 24 carries and 169 yards.

This week in Missouri, the Patriots secondary will face a Fighting Indians passing game which is fresh off leading the Jackson team to a 55-8 victory over the Sikeston Bulldogs (2-1).

“They throw the ball more than anybody we’ll see all year,” Davis said. “They do a good job of spacing and spreading you out.

They’re just trying to find their matchup. If they’ve got three receivers on the right and you’ve only got two defenders over there, they’re going to throw it over there… Their quarterback is really smooth. He’s not fast and athletic. But, he makes really smart decisions with the football and he makes the throws the he’s got to make.”

Despite the different looks that the Marion defense will see this week, Davis feels that through a long summer of work and practicing against the Patriots own high-flying attack, the Marion defensive backs are prepared for an increased workload this week.

“It’s been a different week of practice for us, for sure,” Davis said. “But, that’s why we do all of those seven-on-seven’s in the summer. They see our passing game every day.

So, we feel like that’s something that we can handle.”

Disrupting the Jackson passing game won’t completely fall onto the shoulders of the Marion secondary though, as Davis hopes his defensive line, a strength of the Patriots team according to Davis, can cause some havoc in the Fighting Indians backfield.

“We feel like the defensive line is one of the strengths of our football team,” Davis said. “So, we’re hoping that those guys get a lot of pressure on the quarterback without having to blitz a lot of people. If our front three can get pressure, it makes it extremely difficult for opposing offenses.”

Offensively, Davis hopes that the Patriots can exploit an undersized Fighting Indians defense. Expect Marion running backs Kentreal Jones and Anthony Price to lead the Patriots on the ground in a Marion rushing game which should see a larger role than it saw last week against the Yellowjackets.

Jones and Price each picked up eight carries against Wynne last week, totaling 38 and 36 yards, respectively.

“We definitely think that we’re going to establish our running game early and see how they handle it up front,” Davis said.

“Most of the time, we’re anywhere between 65 and 75 percent pass and this week it may be closer to about 50 percent. We’ve definitely put a lot more emphasis on our run game this week just because of (Jackson’s size on defense) … It’s one of those things for us, we feel like our size is going to be an advantage and try to win the battle up front.”

Davis also expects a bigger night out of Marion’s starting quarterback, Jacob Green. Green, who missed almost all of last season due to injury, completed 16 of 28 passes last week for 168 yards and a touchdown but threw two interceptions. The Marion coach hopes that any rust from sitting out last year was shaken off in last week’s loss.

“I’ll be really disappointed if he’s not (sharper this week),” Davis said. “I expect to see better throws on his timing routes. When he’s supposed to get the throw out on a certain step in his drop, I expect that to be crisper. On some of our deep balls, I expect him to give us a chance. Now that he’s felt the pressure of a Friday night and felt the defense on him, I really hope that he’s learned from that.”

As if coming off a season opening loss wasn’t enough motivation for the Patriots to earn a win this week, Marion, who defeated the Fighting Indians 6235 last season, travels to Jackson for the Fighting Indians homecoming game, something that adds an extra chip to the shoulders of the Marion players, according to Davis.

“We are a little fired up because it’s their homecoming game,” Davis said. “When you beat a team 62-35, then they schedule you for homecoming the next year, I know as a coach it fires me up when somebody picks us for homecoming. So, we’re going to have a little chip on our shoulders. And, we’re going to want to ruin homecoming for a couple of thousands of people in Jackson, Missouri.”

The Marion Patriots hit the road today with kickoff in Jackson slated for 7:00 p.m.

By Collins Peeples