MAQUOKETA - The Marion football team's sluggish, shaky season was badly in need of a shot of adrenaline, a double expresso of momentum, something that would wake the Indians up and get this talented club back on the playoff track.

Marion wasn't finding it on this bummer of a Friday night road trip.

A Maquoketa team looking like the best club in Class 3A District 6 sent the skidding Indians to their third loss in four games with a no-doubt 27-8 rout in Maquoketa.

The Cardinals (4-1, 3-0) derailed the Marion running game early and never allowed the Indians to get on track. Maquoketa held its guests to zero rushing yards in the first half and kept Marion (2-3, 1-1) off the scoreboard until Dontavious Young broke up the shutout with a 2-yard run with 1:58 to play.

“We did a great job of stopping the run,” Maquoketa Coach Kevin Bowman said. “Marion's a good running team.

“We played assignment football and forced Marion to throw the ball, which they didn't want to do.”

The Indians prefer to do their throwing with the lead, which was a luxury they never enjoyed Friday. Maquoketa was in firm command from the first quarter to the final whistle.

With Jacob Kloft trucking for 156 yards on 15 carries and Cohl Kueter backing him with 90 yards on 10 carries, the Cardinals played the game the Indians were hoping to play.

“We defeated a very good football team,” Bowman said.

Up 10-0 at halftime, the Cardinals swelled their lead to 27-0 on third-quarter scores by Kueter (a 22-yard breakaway) and Kloft, whose 75-yard romp to the end zone essentially put the game on ice given Marion's offensive struggles.

A week after Washington froze the Indians to 64 rushing yards on 41 carries, the Cardinals' defense limited Marion to 217 total offensive yards and refused to allow explosive wide receiver Quinn Cannoy to make a big impact on the game.

Given its recent track record of playing elite football, it's easy to forget that Marion's struggles are the natural result of losing 20-plus seniors from the 2012 second-round playoff team and breaking in new starters at most key playing positions. But the Indians are quickly running out of time to right the ship, and their margin for error in what is now an uphill climb back to the postseason continues to shrink.

MAQUOKETA 27, MARION 8

Marion          0  0   0  8  -  8
Maquoketa   7  3  14  3  - 27

MAQ - Cohl Kueter 8 run (Cory Wirth kick)
MAQ - FG Wirth 26
MAQ - Kueter 22 run (Wirth kick)
MAQ - Jacob Kloft 75 run (Wirth kick)
MAQ - FG Wirth 32
MAR - Dontavious Young 2 run (Logan Fuller pass from Trevor Hardman)