COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The story remains the same for Marion County: “Finish what we started.”
For the second consecutive season Marion County’s Warriors clawed their way into Tennessee’s Class 2A football championship game, and again they were denied.
Memphis Trezevant rallied from a slim fourth-quarter deficit, Cordarrian Richardson scored on a fourth-and-5 from Marion’s 48-yard line with 6:45 to play and the Bears held on for a 40-35 victory.
“We thought we had him. It certainly wasn’t lack of effort. He made a play and that was that,” Marion coach Ricky Ross said.
It was a similar story to that of 2014 when Marion absorbed a 34-7 loss to Peabody, another Memphis team. This year’s Warriors finished the season 13-2, giving them a 25-3 run in Ross’s two years as their head coach and a 35-6 string over the past three seasons.
Just as Richardson, a highly touted junior prospect, stuck a dagger in Marion’s side in the fourth quarter, so it was with the 6-foot, 225-pounder throughout the game. Operating behind a beefy offensive line whose smallest starter weighed 240 pounds, Richardson opened the game with a 9-yard run and just kept adding to it. He finished with 342 rushing yards (41 carries/8.3 average) and three touchdowns and also threw an 18-yard TD pass to Tywon Johnson.
No surprise, he was named the game’s offensive MVP.
“He’s a great back, hits the hole hard, and I’d expect him to go far,” observed the game’s defensive MVP, Marion linebacker Alex Kirkendoll.
The Warriors junior finished with nine tackles – all solos – and one was for lost yardage. Marion had four lost-yardage hits, all on Richardson, but those totaled only 7 yards.
“I’ve lined up against some great backs, but he’s the best,” Kirkendoll added.
Marion had its moments against Richardson, especially in the second and third quarters when the Warriors began to run blitz with regularity.
“He’s a good player running behind a good line, and when you have that combination it’s hard to stop,” Ross said. “At times in the game, even crucial times, we forced them to throw the ball but then didn’t play very good defense in the secondary. That one’s probably on me.”
The Warriors got what they wanted, or so they thought, when Trezevant won the toss and elected to receive. Yes, Christian Stephens put the kickoff into the end zone, but the Bears used almost five minutes and drew first blood on Richardson’s 7-yard run.
Marion moved within a point on a 13-yard run by Hunter Zeman and Stephens’ PAT, but Trezevant extended the lead to 22-7 on a 13-yard pass from Tywon Johnson to Justin Swift and Richardson’s 10-yard run. If not for completion of a “Hail Mary” pass, the Bears might have taken that lead into the locker room.
However, with 0:15 left in the first half, Warriors quarterback Logan Walters lofted a 36-yard pass into the end zone and Bryce Massengale wrested it away from defenders to pull his team back within a manageable deficit at 22-14.
Marion cut it to 22-20 with a Walters 1-yard run on the opening possession of the second half, but the Bears forged ahead by 14 on Richardson’s pass to Johnson and Jutarian Malone’s 16-yard run.
Massengale scooped up a fumble recovery in the end zone and cut the lead to 34-28, and then Jacob Saylor’s 2-yard run gave the Warriors a short-lived lead at 35-34, setting the stage for Richardson’s fourth-and-5 scoring romp down the far sideline.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at @wardgossett