Lions roar past Patriots to spoil homecoming night

Lions roar past Patriots to spoil homecoming night

Searcy outscored Marion in the second half 20- 6 to cap 37- 20 win

sports@theeveningtimes.com

Patriots fans at Marion’s homecoming game this past Friday enjoyed a festive atmosphere prior to kickoff which included tailgates, cornhole, a barbecue hosted by the Marion baseball team and celebrating the Marion High School homecoming court. But, the joyful atmosphere soon withered as the Searcy Lions (5-1 overall, 2-1 6A Conference) upset the Marion Patriots (2-4, 1-2) 37-20.

Marion wasted no time getting on the board first, as Patriots quarterback Jacob Green capped off a five-play 54-yard drive with a 13-yard pass to Taylor Brown to give the home team a 7-0 lead not even a minute and a half into the game.

Though the Patriots offense stalled out for some time after that opening drive, Green once again engineered a scoring drive while being assisted by the running of Kentreal Jones. Green and Jones accounted for 36 rushing yards on the drive which ended in Green keeping a read-option and walking into the Lions end zone untouched for a one-yard touchdown, giving Marion a 14-10 lead heading into the halftime break.

Leading the Patriots to the halftime advantage, surprisingly, was a Patriots defense that limited Searcy’s senior quarterback Mason Schucker to just six complete passes out of 17 passing attempts in the first half.

However, the second verse was not the same as the first for Marion as Searcy strung together a 20-6 run in the second half to seal the road-win for the Lions, led by a stellar performance by Schucker that saw the Division-1 prospect complete 14 of 20 passing attempts, including a 79-yard bomb to senior Eli Nevels for a touchdown. The long touchdown gave the Lions a 2414 lead over Marion with 5:58 to go in the third quarter.

Marion head coach Jed Davis says he saw a problem with the Patriots secondary on that play prior to the snap.

“On their last (passing) touchdown, we had our headsets on and we were about to call a timeout because we were misaligned,” Davis said. “We just said, ‘Oh God. They better not run it up top.’ And, sure enough, they ran it up top and it cost us.”

The Patriots then turned the ball over on downs on their next possession, leaving the ball for the Lions on their own 25-yard line.

Momentum had noticeably left the Marion sideline as Searcy drove 75 yards to take a 31-14 lead with 1:13 left in the third frame. “After we gave up a couple of scores and we turned the ball over, we kind of lost the momentum that we had and that was tough,” Davis said. “You can’t quantify momentum.

But, it’s definitely there… It’s hard to get that back.”

The Patriots did claw their way back into a twopossession contest as Green completed a 64-yard pass to Joyrion Chase, setting up a one-yard touchdown run for Anthony Price and cutting the Searcy lead to 11 (31-20) with 10:23 to play.

However, the Lions answered with a nine-play scoring drive of their own, highlighted by a 35-yard completion from Schucker to Alonzo Tripp, sealing the Patriots fate.

Davis says that the Patriots simply allowed Schucker too much time to find open receivers in the second half.

“You give that guy threeand- a-half seconds to find an open to throw, he’s going to find a guy,” Davis said. “We put more guys in the box. You hope they get there. We just didn’t.”

Schucker finished the night completing 20 of his 37 pass attempts for 297 total yards, three touchdowns while throwing one interception to Marion’s Kenta Jones. However, it was the senior receiver duo of Nevels and Tripp that proved to be Schucker’s favorite targets. Nevels hauled in five balls for 132 yards and a score while Tripp caught eight passes for 100 yards and a touchdown.

The Lions also boasted a 100-yard running back, as senior Gabe Chapman finished the night with 127 yards on 23 carries and one touchdown.

On an uncharacteristically slow night for the Patriots offense, Green completed 16 of 36 passes for 242 yards, and one touchdown while throwing one interception. Green’s lone passing touchdown went to Brown who hauled in five total passes for 56 yards while Chase led the Patriots receiving core with seven catches for 135 yards.

Searcy dropped six players into coverage most of the night which led Davis to hope that Marion could find some success on the ground. However, the Patriots rushing attack couldn’t set up the pass, according to Davis.

“If you’re going to play five in the box, we have to be able to run it,” Davis said. “And, we just couldn’t. We couldn’t consistently run it.”

Jones led Marion on the ground with 66 yards on 13 carries while Price added 55 yards and one score on eight rushes.

Marion looks to get back on track this Friday as the Patriots travel to Mountain Home to play the winless Bombers (0-6, 0-3).

Kickoff in Mountain Home is slated for 7:00 p.m.

The Mayor got Hoops

The new Turrell Community Park opened recently, featuring a number of new amenities for residents to enjoy. Turrell Mayor Dorothy Cooper had first crack at the new basketball hoop, taking and making the first shot on the new goal. Nothing but net!

Submitted photo

By Collins Peeples