Marion County's Jacob Saylors (8) tries to break the tackle of Boyd-Buchanan's Tanner Harris (47). The Boyd-Buchanan Buccaneers visited the Marion County Warriors in TSSAA football action on September 23, 2016. MARION COUNTY 49, WATERTOWN 15
The star: Hunter Zeman scored the first three touchdowns for Marion County — on a run, on a pass reception and one after intercepting a lateral — and ended up with 127 yards from scrimmage.Up next: Marion County plays at Forrest.
JASPER, Tenn. - There wasn't a phase of football host Marion County didn't dominate Friday on the way to defeating Watertown 49-15 in a second-round Class 2A high school football state-playoff game.
Marion County (11-1) plays next week at Forrest (11-1), which defeated Meigs County 16-13.
The Warriors covered 52 yards on their first possession, all on the ground. The ninth run was a 14-yard touchdown by Zeman.
Their next possession lasted two plays. The second was Isaiah Sampson's 61-yard scoring pass to Zeman. Sampson ended up 6-of-8 for 181 yards and three TDs.
"They knew we were going to be a running football team," Marion coach Joey Mathis said of the Purple Tigers. "We challenged our offensive line to come out and take control. Our run sets up our play-action game. If we run the football well, they've got to put a lot in the box, and that opens up our passing game."
A muffed punt Cory Murray recovered at the 19 looked like it was going to set the Warriors up for another score, but they fumbled it back after getting down to the 2. However, it did set up a score because Zeman intercepted a lateral by quarterback Seth Price and ran it in from the 13.
Price took a shotgun snap, then ran toward the line of scrimmage at an angle. He stopped and pump-faked as if he was going to lateral to a teammate near the sideline. After reconsidering, he did lateral and Zeman wasn't fooled.
"It was a read option," Zeman said. "We knew how we were going to defend it. It was something our coaches picked up on, on film. I was there between them, and sure enough he threw it."
Jacob Saylors looked as though he was going to be thrown for a loss as Marion was trying to score late in the first half. But he showed great balance, using his hand to keep from going to the ground, and his 6-yard scoring run made it 28-7 at halftime.
Two TDs within the first 7:15 of the third quarter led to a 35-point lead and a running clock much of the second half.
The first score for Watertown (10-2) came on Ty Love's 3-yard run at the end of an 80-yard march that started with 3:27 left in the first quarter. It lasted until the 8:40 mark of the second.
Two of the Purple Tigers' 19 plays were conversions of a fourth-and-1 on their own 29 and a fourth-and-3 on their 38. Their other touchdown didn't come until 3:20 remained.
"We hang our hats on defense," said Mathis, whose stop unit limited a team averaging 46.6 points per game to one touchdown until reserves came in. "We spent a lot of time on that in practice. We wanted to get 11 hats to the football. Our defensive staff came up with a tremendous game plan. We knew they had a high-powered offense."
To complete things in the kicking game, Houston McElroy was 7-for-7 on extra points and Noah Walters put four kickoffs in the end zone and four others inside the 10.
"I feel pretty confident we can accomplish what we want to accomplish, as long as we stick together as a team," said Zeman, who led the rushing with 66 yards on eight carries. "Nobody is selfish on this team."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.