Metro Sports Report

Marion ends rough week with loss

A rough week and a rough season got even rougher for the Marion Indians in heavy rain Friday night, but they vowed to keep fighting.

Marion committed seven turnovers and lost to Solon, 35-0, on a muddy field at Thomas Park for their fourth straight loss this year and 12th overall since last season.

The rough week began Monday with Marion assistant coach Nick Perkins being fired by the Marion school board despite pleas from the players to give him a second chance, and the week ended with a hard, soggy battle in a contest twice delayed by lightning.

Players sank three inches into the muck and ran through puddles in an attempt to play a coherent brand of football.

Cougars stay up late for victory

BETTENDORF - The Pleasant Valley defense probably did as solid a job against Tyler Dralle as you could possibly expect.

The Spartans held the leading rusher in Iowa Class 4A under 100 yards and made him scrap and battle for everything he got.

It was some of Dralle’s pals who ended up making the difference.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy got big plays from Austin Coates and Payton McCarty and a monster performance from lineman-turned-fullback Dalles Jacobus to claw out a weather-delayed 24-7 victory over Pleasant Valley on a moist and stormy Friday night at Spartan Stadium.

The game was delayed for 2 hours, 22 minutes because of lightning early in the second quarter and finished just before midnight with layers of moisture wafting horizontally across the playing field from the west.

Kennedy, now 4-0 and ranked sixth in Class 4A, had a 3-0 lead at the delay and finally took control of the contest with an 82-yard drive in the third quarter. Coach Brian White wasn’t surprised the Spartans (2-2) made his team resort to more than just Dralle to win the game.

Prairie slips in rain at North Scott

ELDRIDGE – Standing your ground in the steady rain and slick field conditions was half the battle Friday night. A deer would have trouble staying on four legs in that monsoon.

And the Cedar Rapids Prairie defense couldn't keep its footing or keep up with North Scott's elusive Brown brothers in the Hawks' frustrating unsuccessful attempt to end a two-game losing streak and get their season back on track.

Quarterback Kier Brown and tailback Kiel Brown rumbled through the Prairie defense at will while commanding North Scott to a 27-14 weather-shortened victory at Lancer Stadium.

Lighting, and a ton of it, put the game on ice with 53 seconds left and North Scott driving inside the Prairie 5-yard line in the third quarter. After at least four dozen confirmed lightning strikes pushed the game's earliest possible re-start time to 11:30 p.m. and with the Hawks already having lost three starters to injury, coaches opted to call the game in the name of player safety, giving North Scott (1-3) its first victory of the year.

“This is pretty crazy,” Prairie coach Mark Bliss said. “I've never seen anything like that.”

No. 8 Warriors crown Linn-Mar, 49-14

Tavian Patrick brought the Washington crowd to its feet Thursday night with a 93-yard kickoff return and a pair of 33-yard touchdown runs, but Kenneth Plume also got a standing ovation at Kingston Stadium.

Don't know Plume? He's a starting offensive lineman for the Warriors and was crowned the homecoming king on a soggy night at Kingston as the eighth-ranked Warriors belted Linn-Mar, 49-14.

So which is better: A 93-yard kickoff return or homecoming king?

"A 93-yard kickoff return. Any day," said Plume, who'd like to try it some day.

But don't get him wrong, he was happy to be king. "I kind of wanted to cry a little bit," he admitted.