On Patriot's Night last week at Wildcat Stadium, the Marion Wildcats shut out a much-improved Herrin Tigers squad, 21-0, to open the season on a winning note and keep the Mayor's Cup in town for the second year of the renewed rivalry between the two teams.
"The Mayor's Cup is a healthy rivalry," said Marion Coach Kerry Martin. "This rivalry has really been important to start up again. We have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and their team. It's good to see them back again. The city governments are involved, so there are even a few side notes involved."
Marion (1-0) hits the road to Jerseyville this Friday. The Wildcats have beat Jersey all three times since 2018, including 64-29 last year.
"Jerseyville is a team we've dealt with the last several years," Martin said. "They are 1-0 and it will be a big challenge for us."
Herrin (0-1) hosts Carterville (1-0) Friday at 7 p.m. The Lions opened the season with a 28-0 win over Benton at home.
"We played pretty solid for three and a half quarters," said Herrin coach Taylor Perry. "They've got a lot of guys who play only one side of the ball and we play both sides of the ball. That was pretty evident in the second half. They kind of wore us down.
"I'm proud of our defense. They played phenomenal. Offensively we got a lot of weapons, but we've got a couple things to clean up. I think we'll be just fine."
The Marion defense held the Tigers to 44 yards rushing on 26 attempts and 72 yards passing on 17 throws and just seven first downs.
"The defense saved us," Martin said. "We're going to have to lean on our defense at the beginning of the year until we get our offense timed up. Our execution may not have been great, but our effort was great and the kids gutted it out. I'll take that kind of win every time."
The Wildcats rushed for 238 yards, with Patrick Walker gaining 100 yards on 15 attempts with two touchdowns. Last year the junior running back played in only four games, finishing with 102 yards on 10 attempts and two touchdowns. Senior quarterback Evan Noelle rushed for 76 yards on eight attempts.
"The offense moved the ball well at times and then things happened," Martin said. "We missed opportunities in the red zone several times. We have to grow through that. We'll get better and hopefully we'll take a big stride between this week and next week."
Turnovers and penalties were a problem. The Wildcats were penalized six times for 77, which ended three drives and wiped out a long run another time, and turned the ball over twice on interceptions -- once deep inside Herrin territory and the other deep in its own.
"It was not a good night for us with penalties," Martin said. "There are six statistics we chart and want to win and one is penalties. We won that every game last year but one. We had a lot of yardage called back on some big plays. It disrupts your rhythm. Offense is rhythm and we just couldn't get any tonight."
Noelle completed 12-of-25 passes for 95 yards with two interceptions. Wildcat (rushing) quarterback Brody Larson had one of the two plays of the game completing his only pass down the middle to Tommy Wiseman for a 57-yard catch and run with less than two minutes left in the first half.
The score was only 8-0 at the half with the only score coming at the end of a 12-play, 58-yard drive at the beginning of the second quarter on Marion's third possession of the game.
"I prepared all week for a dogfight, so I honestly wasn't surprised a bit," Martin said. "I thought we were a little further along than I saw tonight, but maybe a lot of that goes to Herrin. I give Herrin a lot of credit for having a good game plan and playing the heck out of it. We have a lot of new faces -- a lot -- so that first ballgame can be a real challenge as far as the timing of the game, the speed of the game, the crowd. It's good to learn a lot in a win than having to learn a lot in a loss."
The scoring drive began with 14.7 seconds left in the first quarter after the Marion defense stopped the Tigers on a 3-and-out for negative three yards on a drive that started on the Herrin 31 following an interception by Evan Watson on Noelle's seventh pass of the game after having completed four of his first six passes for 32 yards and four first downs.
The scoring drive began with a run for no gain and an incomplete pass and a penalty that came after a first down on a 16-yard scramble by Noelle that left the Wildcats at their own 43 instead of the Herrin 42.
Noelle shook off that setback and got the drive going with completions of eight yards to Wiseman and 10 yards to Britton Powell down to the Herrin 39. Noelle then gained 11 more yards up the middle for a first down at the Herrin 28.
A nine-yard run by Jordyn Beverly followed by a seven-yard run by Walker set up a 2nd-and-3 at the 11. But the drive stalled with a three-yard loss on a run and a two-yard loss on a pass, setting up 4th-and-8 at the 16.
Pulling out all the stops, Coach Martin called a pass play, and Noelle and Talon Hance delivered with an 11-yard completion to the five. Walker scored from there on the next play and Wiseman ran in the two-point conversion and the Wildcats led 8-0 with 8:43 remaining in the first half.
On the Tigers' next possession, Jalen Elliott caused and recovered a fumble at the end of a seven-yard gain following a 31-yard pass completion, setting up the Wildcats at the Marion 32. However, that drive went nowhere, resulting in a punt from the 35.
After forcing another punt, the Wildcats took over on their own 17 and drove to the Herrin 15, but a fumble for a four-yard loss followed by two incompletions turned the ball over to the Tigers with 30 seconds left.
The game was scoreless in the third quarter with Marion's first possession ending on fourth down with an incomplete pass at the Herrin 30 and it's second at its own 38 on an interception by Noah Mason with 3:57 remaining in the third quarter.
After stopping the Tigers first six possessions on five punts and a fumble recovery the defense came up big after giving up a five-yard run on first down. On second down Maurice Marvin stopped Lucas Sissom for no gain.
On third down Hance sacked Reese Billingsley for a five-yard loss. On 4th-and-10 Billingsley was flushed from the pocket and tackled after a five-yard run by Beverly and Michael Gunn stopping the drive at the Marion 33.
"Stopping them after that interception was a momentum changer for them," Martin said. "The defense continued to give us a chance to win the ballgame over and over."
After the two teams traded punts to close out the third quarter and open the fourth, Marion took over on its own 23 and drove the length of the field on 11 plays with Beverly scoring from the one. The two-point conversion failed on a fumble, leaving Marion with a 14-0 lead with 6:22 remaining in the game.
The defense held the Tigers to its fourth 3-and-out and took over on the Herrin 45 following the punt. The drive was all Walker, starting with a 27-yard run around left end and followed with a six-yard run up the middle and a five-yard run behind the left guard.
With a 1st-and-goal at the seven Walker finished the drive with touchdown around right end. Chase Banks kicked the extra point and the Wildcats extended its lead to 21-0 with 4:27 remaining.
The other play of the game came on the second to last play with the Wildcat reserves playing when Brody Long broke off a 67-yard run, but it was called back on a holding penalty leaving him with an official three-yard gain.
