Picking up their fifth straight win over Calloway County, the Marshals needed overtime to do it, getting their third win of the season by a final score of 34-27.
Calloway County got on the board first following a Marshall County fake field goal pass attempt that fell incomplete. The Lakers fumbled and recovered, starting their drive from the nine yard line when Schwepker took the ball 89 yards for a touchdown and 7-0 lead on the extra point attempt at 4:19 in the first quarter.
The Marshals next drive began at the end of the first quarter after a Calloway County punt set the ball up on the 31 yard line and scored on a 59 yard pass from Tyler Stokes to Ty Buchmeier.
Getting the ball back on downs at the nine yard line, the drive ended and Marshals were forced to punt, getting a nice one from Austin Stockdale to the Lakers 41 yard line. On their first play from scrimmage, Schwepker went 40 yards for the Lakers to the Marshals 19 yard line before the ball landed in the hands of Marshall County’s Matthew Wooten who took the fumble back to the 44 yard line.
Stokes completed a pass to Dawson Smothers for a gain of 48 yards with Luke Wyatt going the final nine yards for a Marshall County touchdown and their first lead at 14-7 with two minutes left in the half.
The Lakers wasted no time getting into Marshall County territory on a 40 yard gain by Dareios Stribling. An unsportsmanlike penalty added to that against the Marshals moved the ball down to the 25 yard line. On fourth down from the 29, Calloway’s Ian Clark missed a 39 yard attempt and the Marshals held onto the 14-7 lead at halftime.
Marshall County started the second half with the ball, starting from the 31 yard line and the drive went no where, punting to the Lakers who set up at their 34 yard line. The Lakers drive ended on three plays and punted back to the Marshals who began the drive at their own 13 yard line following a holding penalty.
Gains were canceled out by penalties on the Marshals drive before the ball went back to the Lakers on downs at their own 41 yard line and they scored on a 51 yard screen pass to Schwepker. The extra point attempt was blocked by Blake Myhand to keep the Marshals up by one at 14-13.
Starting their next drive from their own 30 yard line, the Marshals went 30 yards to the Calloway County 40 to start the fourth quarter, scoring on a 36 yard run by Tyler Stevenson with the extra point attempt good by Stockdale for a 21-13 lead.
The Lakers drove 62 yards, scoring on a 34 yard run by Stribling with 7:22 left in the fourth quarter. The two point conversion failed but the Marshals lead was cut to 21-19.
Marshall County scored on their next drive, going 55 yards, scoring on a two yard run by Isaac Stevenson following a 23 yard run by Stokes to the two yard line. The two point conversion attempt failed and the Marshals led 27-13 with two and half minutes remaining.
Starting from their own 35, Calloway scored on an 85 yard run by Schwepker and with the two point conversion, tied the game at 27-27 with 2:15 left.
Starting from their 20 yard line, the Marshals turned the ball over on an interception of Stokes by Jacob Waters to give the Lakers 1:21 to work with, the ball on the Marshals 37 yard line. A run by Schwepker and penalty on the Marshals moved the ball on the 14 and set up a 30 yard field goal for the win by Ian Clark who missed it to the left to send the game into overtime.
Both teams with a possession in overtime, Calloway County won the toss and elected to go on defense giving the Marshals the first chance to score. Getting the ball at the 10 yard line with four downs to score, Buchmeier on the first play went in for the touchdown with the extra point kick good by Stockdale to lead 34-27.
The Marshals kept the Lakers out of the end zone in their four plays from the 10 yard line, recovering a fumble on the final play for the overtime win.
“A lot of things we can take from tonight…we fought to the very end and had some good things go our way”, Head Coach Evan Merrick said. “We made some mistakes we’ve got to fix, but let’s enjoy the win for the time being.”
The Marshals had 397 yards of total offense, 290 rushing and 107 in the air. Calloway County had 477 yards, 271 passing and 206 on the ground.
Another rivalry game at home this week against Murray who are 2-2 following a 38-0 win over Fort Campbell Friday.
Watch the game on Marshall County Daily’s YouTube channel.
Game stats
Rushing: Marshall 290, Calloway 271
Marshall: T. Stevenson 7/125 (1 TD), Wyatt 17/65 (1 TD), Buchmeier 9/50 (1 TD), Wooten 3/6, I. Stevenson 1/2 (1 TD)
Passing: Marshall 107, Calloway 206
Marshall: Buchmeier 1/59 (1 TD), Smothers 1/48
Marshall: Stokes 2/5 (107 yds., 1 TD)
PAT’s: Stockdale 4/4
Tackles: Smothers 16, Myhand 8, Buchmeier 7
