JASPER, Tenn. — By the third quarter’s midpoint, the only debate was on which side of the ball Marion County dominated more.
The defense set up a pair of first-half touchdowns for the Warriors by forcing three turnovers — senior end Myles Mays forced one and recovered two — and bullied visiting East Hamilton up front all night, while the offense provided plenty of fireworks of its own in a convincing 35-0 nonregion win Friday night at Bill Baxter Stadium.
“It actually all starts with our kicking game pinning people deep in their own territory to start drives,” Warriors coach Tim Starkey said. “From there, we’ve got some dudes who can pin their ears back and come after teams.
“Myles is one of a kind. He wrecks our practice so much every day that I have to take him out just so we can get some snaps off. There’s a reason he’s gotten so many (scholarship) offers.”
The defensive front held East Hamilton to gains of 2 yards or less on 28 of 40 snaps by TSSAA Class 5A’s Hurricanes (1-1).
Meanwhile, senior quarterback Tilton Pickett completed 11 of 13 passes for 202 yards and five touchdowns, with four of those going to Sam Pickett (no relation), who finished with 200 yards of offense on just nine touches.
Marion, which has beaten its first two opponents (both from higher classifications) by a combined score of 75-0, needed just five plays to find the end zone on its opening possession against East Hamilton. Tilton Pickett connected with Sam Pickett, who caught the pass at the Hurricanes’ 29-yard line and spun off one tackle attempt before breaking three more and outracing the pursuit for a 41-yard touchdown.
The next two scores were set up by turnovers, with Tilton Pickett finding Braydon Coffelt in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass that capped a seven-play, 62-yard drive, and after East Hamilton fumbled its next snap back to Marion, the Pickett-to-Pickett connection produced a 27-yard score.
“I after I threw that first TD to Sam, I knew it was on for us then,” Tilton Pickett said. “If I can get the ball in his hands, good things usually happen.
“The amount of talent we have on this team, offensive and defensively, is crazy. Our line did a great job for us tonight, and everybody on the defense was elite.”
The first two drives of the third quarter were more of the same. Sam Pickett broke free on a 55-yard gain on the first play of the second half, and three plays later, he caught a 13-yard scoring pass. After one of six defensive stops in which the Hurricanes had possession for three or fewer plays, Marion got its final score on a 44-yard pass from Pickett to Pickett, invoking the mercy rule.
“We feel like our defense can get the whole team going and up the energy when we come out and get big stops early,” Mays said. “We’re playing with a lot of confidence on both sides right now. I could tell after the first couple of snaps that they weren’t going to be able to stop us up front.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com.