LA PORTE CITY - The up-and-down Marion Indians saw their Class 3A playoff dreams go up in smoke Friday night by falling on the road to District 5 qualifier Union, 45-14.

"It's the same thing it's been all year," said Marion Coach Tony Perkins. "We find ways to beat ourselves.

"We do silly things like miss blocks or miss tackles. We fumble the ball at a bad time or have an interception. Or we have a costly penalty. We seem to always do things to hurt ourselves."

With one game left against district leader Maquoketa, the Indians are now out of the postseason picture at 4-4 overall and 2-4 in district play. The Union Knights, meanwhile, improved to 6-2 and 4-2.

The Indians have been able to overcome injuries and self-inflicted wounds against lesser teams, but Union is blessed with one of the premier running backs in the state, big school or small, in senior speedster Wes Burnside.

In last year's 41-35 win over Marion, he carried the ball 58 times for 315 yards and three touchdowns. Before sitting down midway in the third quarter Friday with his team comfortably in front 38-7, the rugged workhorse piled up 175 yards on 25 carries and four scores.

For good measure, Burnside also completed a 26-yard pass to receiver Trev Hadachek to the 1-yard line, setting up his third touchdown. Despite being hampered by a hamstring injury in three games this season, Burnside has 1,106 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns.

"Wes did what he does all the time," said Coach Joe Hadachek. "He jukes and changes directions, hits the seams and then he just takes off."

It was clear from the start that Union intended to run Burnside for all he's worth. He carried four straight times on the Knights' first possession until they settled for a booming 41-yard field goal by Brady Petersen to go ahead 3-0.

Burnside lugged the ball four more times after a Marion punt and scored from seven yards out.

Though on their heels, the Indians pulled off some razzle-dazzle to keep the game close. Taking a direct snap from center, Marion's own 1,000-yard rusher Colton Storla rolled right and lofted a pretty 67-yard scoring pass to quarterback-turned-catcher Cale Cannoy.

Before the first quarter ended, however, shifty Union sophomore Jay Scheel faked to Burnside and took off for 87 yards down the sideline to make the score 17-7.

Led by bruising linebacker Jake McDonald and sparkplug defensive back Hunter Banes, the Indians' defense bucked up in the second quarter and even caused a fumble by Burnside that was recovered by Taylor Rogers near midfield.

But Cannoy, who does everything for Marion on both sides on the ball and even punts to boot, went to the sidelines near the end of the first half after hurting his shoulder trying to make a tackle. His back-up, junior signal-caller Brian Kinney, threw an interception that Union capitalized on with a 3-yard Burnside score to make it 24-7 at half.

Cannoy did not return to the game and his status for Marion's finale is not yet known, Perkins said.

Despite being down, the coach said, "I actually thought our defense played really well in the first half. And one thing about this team, they didn't quit."

With a make-shift offense in the second half, often with Storla running the ball on direct snaps from center, Marion could get little going.

After Burnside's one-yarder, he scored another from 45 yards out and Scheel passed a 40-yarder to Hadachek to put the Knights ahead 45-7.

Storla, who ended the night with 109 yards rushing on 25 carries, somewhat eased the pain late in the game with a 34-yard gallop and a 3-yard touchdown scamper to close the scoring.

"They're a real good football team, no question about it," Perkins said of the victors. "And we made too many mistakes."

UNION 45, MARION 14

Marion    Union

First downs         7        17
Rushing             35-182   42-287
Passing             3-9-1    10-16-0
Passing Yards       72       140
Total yards         254      427
Punting             6-35     1-48
Fumbles/Lost        2/1      2/1
Penalties           4-47     8-39