Marion comes up short in loss to Little Rock Parkview

Three turnovers prove costly in 28-24 defeat in battle of Patriots

Marion School District The Marion Patriots (1-2 overall) had their opportunities to get a win over the Parkview Patriots (1-1), but Marion was not able to take advantage of their chances. Any one of Marion’s three turnovers in Parkview territory could have made a difference in the 28-24 loss.

“We’ve got to be able to execute when we get a chance to make plays,” Marion coach Keith Houston said. “We dropped too many passes, didn’t tackle well enough and didn’t do any of the little things right. We still have a really good team, but we’ve got to carry the things we do in practice into the game.”

Marion’s offense gained 432 yards, only six fewer yards than Parkview. Marion quarterback Daedrick Cail threw all three touchdowns for the Pats and completed 22 of his 35 passes for 291 yards.

Parkview’s Landon Rogers only completed eight passes, but the 25 yards per completion average gave him 203 passing yards. The biggest pass was a 49-yard touchdown that bounced to an open Parkview receiver after hitting a Marion defender.

The majority of Parkview’s yards came from a combination of three different running backs. Parkview ran for 235 yards on 45 attempts for an average of over five yards per run.

Anthony Price led the way for the Marion running attack with 106 yards. The senior’s longest rush of the night was for 39 yards and he averaged over five yards per carry, but he also lost his first fumble of the season.

Receiver Cayden Hunt led the Patriot receiving corps with six catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.

The senior would leave in the second half after a diving Parkview defender’s helmet hit his knee.

D.J. Johnson caught four passes for 64 yards, the longest of which was a 21-yard touchdown grab.

Thomas Dorin’s only catch was the first Marion touchdown, a 39-yard one-handed snag that he had to make while on the run.

Because Marion played Blytheville during Arkansas’ ‘Zero Week,’ the Patriots have a bye week.

The Pats plan to use the bye week to refocus and regroup themselves before the all-important conference schedule begins.

“We’re going to go back to the basics and make sure we know who we are,” Houston said. “We’re going to work on being ourselves; on being Marion.”

were just trying to make a statement,” Elmore commented.

McConnell, who started and played all but one series because sophomore quarterback Tevin Carter was injured on his only offensive series and was held out the rest of the game, completed 8 of 13 passes for 103 yards, threw for two touchdowns, the second of which went to Jaylen Shephard with 4:31 left in the third quarter to give the Blue Devils their first lead of the game at 21-17 after Colin Clark’s PAT.

The lead got as high as 10 points twice in the second half, but both times the Blue Devils cracked open the door for the Chicks.

Loving, who also had two TDs, bolted into the end zone from 9 yards out with 1:33 left in the third quarter for a 27-17 West Memphis cushion.

Blytheville quarterback Jeremiah Northern, who has a big arm, but no touch, connected with Willie Bell for a 14-yard touchdown to slice the Blue Devil lead to 27-24 with 5:51 left in the fourth quarter.

But the Blue Devils answered back with Loving’s second touchdown, from 3 yards, to make it 34-24 and seemingly out of reach for the Chicks.

“The two positives you take away from this game is, No. 1 we won the game,” said Elmore.

“And two, although we kept making mistakes, we played with more heart in the second half.”