Marshals fall on the road to Madisonville-North Hopkins 45-14

Marshals Tristan Cline (10), Matthew Wooten (6) and Austin Riley (7) surround Madisonville’s Jeriah Hightower who gained 175 yards and scored three touchdowns for the Maroons.

Marshall County and Madisonville-North Hopkins met for the 22nd time dating back to 1983 with a recent 9-year break before renewing their series last season in a game the Maroons beat the Marshals 42-29 at home behind a 200 yard game by then sophomore Jeriah Hightower.

Hightower, who rushed for 1,528 yards last season, earned 175 yards on 22 carries and three touchdowns Friday in Madisonville’s 45-14 win over Marshall County. Senior Aaron Miller rushed for 85 yards for the Maroons and combined with Hightower, the two forces rushed for 260 of the 312 rushing yards for Madisonville.

“They dominated us up front”, Coach Evan Merrick said in post-game comments. “They’re a very good football team…we’ve got to learn from it and that’s what I told those guys. We’ve got to match it for one thing and not shy away.”

Dawson Smothers drops Madisonville running back DJ Slaton.

Merrick added that the team can’t let the loss carry into next week’s game against Ballard Memorial saying, “we’ve got to check ourselves emotionally a little bit…we’ve got to be ready to go into a football game.”

Madisonville stifled the Marshals forward progress the entire first half, holding them to just 28 yards of offense while the Maroons racked up 32 first half points starting with a 53 yard drive that ended in two rushes for 20 yards by Hightower to the one yard one and a quarterback keeper by Hayden Reynolds. Madisonville put together a 75 yard drive that resulted in a three yard touchdown run by Hightower to lead 14-0.

Their third touchdown came on an interception of Tyler Stokes by Gunner Dameron who ran back 40 yards for the score and a 19-0 lead to end the first quarter. The Maroons went up 26-0 on a 34 yard run by Hightower and scored their final touchdown of the first half on a 55 yard run by Miller to lead 32-0 at halftime.

Receiving the ball to open the second half, Madisonville drove 75 yards, scoring on an 11 yard run by Miller to lead 38-0 and would add their final touchdown on a Hightower 14 yard run to lead 45-0. The Marshals put 14 points on the board in the fourth quarter, capping off a 77 yard drive with a 10 yard touchdown run by Austin Riley. Following a fumble recovery by Marshall’s Jacob Haney, Riley scored again, taking the ball 62 yards for a touchdown with both point after attempts good by Austin Stockdale.

The Marshals will reset for next Friday’s Hall of Fame game at home against Ballard Memorial. The Bombers were off on Friday but won their first game of the season 50-12 over South Fulton.

Total Offense: Madisonville 393, Marshall 165
Rushing: Madisonville 312, Marshall 165
Passing: Madisonville 81, Marshall 0
Madisonville Rushing: Hightower 22/175 (3 TD), Miller 6/85 (2 TD), Reynolds 5/29
Marshall Rushing: Riley 3/90 (2 TD), Buchmeier 12/56, Wyatt 4/16
Madisonville Passing: Reynolds 10/14 81 yds.
First downs: Madisonville 19, Marshall 5

The Marshals defense spent a lot of time on the field Friday trying to contain the running attack of Madisonville-North Hopkins.