Warriors knock out Trousdale this time

Marion County 41, Trousdale County 20Star: Blake Zeman ran for 143 yards and three touchdowns and scored also on a 66-yard interception return.Up next: Marion County (11-1) hosts Grace Christian from Knoxville next Friday in a state semifinal.

JASPER, Tenn. - Marion County didn't have a passing yard in Friday's TSSAA Class 2A quarterfinal football game. But the Warriors didn't need one.

With a ground game that pounded out 330 yards, Marion County got a measure of payback against Trousdale County, the team that put the Warriors out of last year's playoffs at the quarterfinal level on the way to winning the state title. But more importantly to them, they're moving on after a 41-20 victory over the Yellow Jackets.

Marion County (11-1) will host Knoxville Grace Christian in next Friday's semifinal round. Kickoff will be at 8 p.m. EST.

photo Marion County's Hayden Tudors (66) rushes Trousdale punter Marquel Claiborne (3).

The best illustration of how strong Marion's running game was came with the score tied at 7. Marion County took over the ball on its 20 after an interception by Jacob Saylors with 9:06 to go in the second quarter.

Then, not only did the Warriors drive it for the tiebreaking touchdown, they did it on 19 consecutive runs. The last was a 7-yarder by Blake Zeman for the score.

"Offensive line and defensive line, I think we won up front," Marion coach Ricky Ross said. "We didn't turn the ball over except one time when they got their first score. I think we're getting better every week. Who you play you've got to know, but we're concerned with working on ourselves."

A big momentum swing occurred on the final play of the first half when Zeman intercepted a pass and weaved and hurdled his way 66 yards for a touchdown. After a timeout, Josh Henderson ran for the conversion and the Warriors went to halftime up 22-7.

"Zeman made a play before the half," Trousdale County coach Kevin Creasy said, "but that's on me. I probably shouldn't have thrown it there."

Said Ross: "The deal about that great run was that we had 10 other kids blocking on that play, meaning 11 people believed we could score on that play."

The Yellow Jackets switched to a different offense in the third quarter with several direct snaps going to running back Kenyan Harper. Neither team scored in the third, but Trousdale got an early score in the fourth to get within nine and eventually was within 25-20 with 3:29 to play.

Among the happenings in that final 3:29 were two onside kicks recovered by Trousdale and a cross-field throw that resulted in a long kickoff return. But penalties, a call for illegal touching and an offside call, negated both onside kicks. The return was ruled an illegal forward pass -- Creasy saying the flag wasn't thrown until the runner was tackled -- and Marion registered a safety on the next play.

"We'll never know how this game would've played out," Creasy said. "The referees took it out of the kids' hands. I'm proud of our kids. They fought to the end. Their kids fought to the end, too. They've got a really good team, but the score is not indicative of the way the game played out."

Zeman led Marion County with 143 yards on 22 carries and three touchdowns. Henderson added nine carries for 109 yards and a TD.

Harper paced Trousdale with 138 yards on 27 carries, and he caught six passes for 94 yards. He had a touchdown run and a touchdown catch.

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.

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