JASPER, Tenn. — Just moments into the second half of Saturday’s season opener, Marion County football coach Ricky Ross called a timeout and gathered his starters in a huddle. The second-year head coach didn’t like the lapses in concentration he was seeing and wanted to remind the Class 2A third-ranked Warriors there would come a point in the season when they would need to focus for four quarters.
That time, however, was not Saturday afternoon. Marion County raced out to a huge first-half lead, then coasted through the second half for an impressive 38-12 victory over visiting Hixson.
“We set out to try to win two of the three parts of the game, and aside from a few plays I thought we did that, especially in the first half,” said Ross, who had moved the game from Thursday to Friday because of standing water on the field and eventually had to reschedule for a midday kickoff on Saturday instead.
The temperatures hovered in the mid-80s for much of the game, but the Warriors proved to have plenty of depth and clearly are in great condition. Despite the heat, no player had to leave the game because of cramps.
“We wanted to get a lot of kids in the game in the second half and things got a little sloppy, but we’ll go back to work and get better,” Ross added. “I thought we ran to the ball pretty good on defense and did a good job on special teams for the most part.”
The Warriors were ahead 7-0 before the offense even took the field thanks to senior Josh Henderson, who helped stifle the Wildcats offense on the opening series and then brought back a punt 51 yards for a touchdown. Henderson would add a 45-yard kickoff return and had another long punt return that would have gone for a touchdown had his left heel not barely stepped on the sideline. He also brought back a punt nearly 50 yards to the 1-yard line, but that return was negated by a penalty.
“We wanted to come out and set the tone early,” Henderson said. “Not just for this game but for our whole season. This is where it starts.
“On that first return, I saw a wall set up and I just pointed for a couple of guys to get another block so I had an open field.”
The Warriors followed that fast start with a six-play, 60-yard drive on their first offensive series, capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by quarterback Logan Walters, who later added a 45-yard scoring toss to Jacob Saylors. Quin Beasley and Hunter McClain also had scoring runs late in the second quarter to help put the game away.
Senior all-state kicker Christian Stephens drilled a 35-yard field goal to go with five extra points, and the only time his kickoffs didn’t sail into the end zone was when he was instructed to use a directional kick to a corner of the field, helping pin Hixson’s offense deep.
By halftime Marion County had allowed just 39 total yards and had nearly 200 more yards offense than Hixson.
Even without the graduated two-time Mr. Football award finalist Blake Zeman, the Warriors had a punishing ground game as 11 ball carriers averaged 5.5 yards per attempt, although none had more than five carries.
The only obvious negative, other than Ross’s concern about his team letting up mentally in the second half, were the 16 penalties committed by the Warriors. Marion’s 130 yards in penalties were 14 more yards than Hixson gained on the ground for the game.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.