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.

"It was definitely rough," said Marion senior Owen Carstensen, a bright spot with two interceptions. "You've got rain factoring into everything, you've got people sliding around, you've got balls sliding around."

Solon committed four turnovers, but the Spartans had bigger and stronger players than the Indians and dominated the line of scrimmage.

The score actually could have been worse, but the Marion defense kept Solon out of the end zone after the Spartans got the ball in prime territory at the Marion 12-, 19-, 35- and 37-yard lines.

Solon scored its first two touchdowns in the first half thanks to gifts by the home team, but the Spartans were turned away on three more opportunities in the opening 24 minutes or else it might have been 35-0 at intermission.

"I'm very pleased with our defense. I really am," Marion coach Tony Perkins said. "Fourteen-nothing at halftime, I was just thrilled."

The offense was a different matter.

Marion collected only 137 yards of total offense, just a week after rolling up 490 yards in a 29-26 loss to Cascade, but this was a different night against a different opponent on a sloppy field.

It's been a frustrating season, but the Indians have adopted a team motto of "Never Give Up, Never Give In" and plan to keep battling.

"We have three games comping up that we think we might have a pretty good chance at," said Carstensen, looking at DeWitt Central, Maquoketa and West Dubuque. "It was our best offense last week, our best defense this week. We need to put it together, come back and try to get three in a row here and get on a roll."

Perkins is confident his team will keep playing hard, despite the hard times.

"They're great kids," he remarked. "I said at the beginning of the year, I love this team. But we also said we didn't have any depth and it keeps getting more and more depleted.

"We just have to have everybody take a step forward and help out."

Carstensen was one of the Marion players who spoke on behalf of Nick Perkins -- the head coach's brother -- at the school board meeting Monday. Many of the players were visibly upset and hugged Perkins after the school board voted unanimously to fire him following allegations of verbal abuse.

It was the start of a long week for the Indians.

"It's been rough," Carstensen said. "We've been trying to kind of look past it, stay focused, be ready for today. It's been rough, though.

"We miss Nick," he said. "We hope the best for him and we hope he finds a way to make it to a couple of our games and support us. We know he is, but it's definitely rough not having him on the sidelines supporting all of us."

Tony Perkins knows his players have had a lot to deal with the past few weeks, culminating in the school board meeting.

"It was very painful," he said. "They love Nick a lot."

Brandan Childs scored Solon's first two touchdowns in the Class 3A/District 4 game on a pair of short runs. Bo Black broke loose for a 49-yard touchdown in the third quarter and Nathaniel Christensen scored on a 16-yard run in the fourth period.

The Spartans (2-2, 1-1) also tallied on an 8-yard interception return by Matthew Roeder.

Kory Walsh led Marion with 87 yards on the ground with two big runs.

SOLON 35, MARION 0

.                         SOL      MAR

First downs            15             6

Rushes-yards    44-251      38-89

Passing yards         35           48

Comp-Att-Int    4-12-3      3-11-4

Fumbles-lost         5-1           7-3

Punts-avg.       1-47.0       4-24.0

Penalties-yards    3-25            2-9

Solon    14 0 7 14 - 35

Marion    0 0 0   0 -   0

Scoring plays

S - Brandan Childs 1 run (Childs kick)

S - Childs 2 run (Childs kick)

S - Bo Black 49 run (Childs kick)

S - Nathaniel Christensen 16 run (Childs kick)

S - Matthew Roeder 8 interception return (Childs kick)

Individual statistics

Passing

Solon - Griffis 3-10-3, 29; Childs 1-2-0, 6.

Marion - Hahn 3-10-4, 48; Kray 0-1-0, 0.

Rushing

Solon - Childs 16-67, Black 5-50, Nelson 9-47, Griffis 7-44, Christensen 4-44, Durr 1-7, Diltz 1-2, Team 1-minus 4.

Marion - Walsh 13-87, Kray 11-28, Carstensen 4-0, Mohwinkle 2-0, Hahn 8-minus 26.

Receiving

Solon - Dall 3-17, Durr 1-18.

Marion - Kray 2-12, Whalen 1-26.