The Marshals ran…the Bombers threw, and at the end of the over three-hour offensive battle, Marshall County defeated Ballard Memorial 70-52, setting a new single game record for scoring and a new record for a combined score in a game in program history.
The two teams combined for almost 1,000 yards in total offense. For the Marshals, 474 of their 485 total yards came on the ground while the Bombers went to the air for 467 of their 507 offensive yards. Four year starter Erick Marinelli threw 34 completions out of 56 attempts for 467 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Marinelli’s main target was Drew Cox who pulled in 21 passes for 283 yards and five touchdowns.
While the Bombers were airing it out, the Marshals were grinding it out on the ground, led by Ty Buchmeier with 188 yards on 11 carries and three touchdowns. Austin Riley carried the ball four times for 86 yards scoring three touchdowns, quarterback Tyler Stokes, nine carries for 82 yards and two touchdowns and Luke Wyatt 67 yards and two touchdowns.
Ballard opened the game with a 70 yard drive, scoring on a 23 yard pass from Marinelli to Cox, then recovered a Marshall County fumble and immediately scored again on a 38 yard pass from Marinelli to Trenton Howard for a 12-0 lead following missed extra point attempts.
Starting from their 30 yard line, the Marshals capped off a 70 yard drive with an 11 yard keeper by Stokes and extra point tacked on by Austin Stockdale to trail 12-7 at 7:31 in the first quarter. Ballard’s 46 yard kick-off return set up a seven yard pass to Cox for another quick score and 18-7 lead.
Riley gave the Marshals a nice 32 yard return on the ensuing kick-off and the drive went 53 yards resulting in a two yard carry by Buchmeier for the touchdown and two point conversion also by Buchmeier to cut the Ballard lead to 18-15 with 2:07 left in the first quarter.
Ballard capped off an 81 yard drive with a touchdown to start the second quarter on a 26-15.
A Ballard fumble recovery by the Marshals led to a touchdown at 6:37 in the second, scoring on a 14 yard run by Riley to cut the Bombers lead to 26-21 at halftime.
Coming out of the half, Stokes was intercepted by Trevor Howard who ran the ball back 40 yards to the Marshals 32 yard line but one of the better defensive stands for the Marshals forced a Ballard turnover on downs and Buchmeier’s 60 yard run for a touchdown gave the Marshals their first lead of the game following the two point conversion, 29-26.
Ballard took the lead back on a touchdown pass to Cox. The Marshals answered with a 75 yard kick return by Riley to the five yard line and five yard touchdown run by Wyatt to go back up 36-33, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game.
A fumble by the Bombers on the kick-off was recovered by Wyatt and the Marshals went 61 yards, scoring on a 14 yard touchdown run by Buchmeier to take a 42-32 lead. They went up 49-32 on a seven yard touchdown run by Riley but the Bombers weren’t done, scoring on a 58 yard pass from Marinelli to Cox with a minute left in the third quarter to cut the Marshals lead once more, 49-38.
Moving on to the fourth quarter, the Marshals scored on a 16 yard keeper by Stokes to go up 56-38, but again Ballard scores on a 27 yard touchdown pass to Cox and it’s 56-44. With 8:15 still to go in the game, Wyatt scores on a one yard run for the Marshals and they lead 63-44. Ballard answers with another touchdown followed by a two point conversion and the Marshals lead is 63-50 with 3:32 left.
Following the kick-off, Riley goes 58 yards for a touchdown on the Marshals first play from scrimmage to go up 70-52. Ballard’s next drive ended in a fumble recovered by Jacob Haney with 1:07 on the clock and that would be the game.
“We’ve got to play better defensively”, Merrick said. “You can’t depend on out-scoring everybody. Luckily we did tonight.” Merrick was happy with his team’s fight to the very end adding, “We had to go through a lot of adversity on the field but we kept playing and playing as a unit. Going into next week, Calloway’s going to be a similar type game.”
That adversity came in the way of penalties. The Marshals were penalized 15 time for 132 yards while the Bombers were penalized 13 times for 100 yards.
“We’ve been slow starters in all three games and that’s something that we’ve got to come out on top and establish some momentum…that’s what’s going to help us later on in the big games we’ve got coming up”, said Merrick.
