Marion Football

Marion looks to rebound after tough year

The Marion Indians got off to a good start last year when they whipped Mount Vernon, 28-6, in the first game of the regular season, but they never won another ballgame and finished with a 1-and-8 record.

It was a tough season to swallow for a program that's accustomed to winning records and trips to the Class 3A playoffs.

"It was horrible," Coach Tony Perkins said Thursday before practice. "The worst thing about it, you do everything the same as you have in every other year, and then you have one of those years where everything that could go wrong ..."

Perkins did not finish the season, but you know the ending.

"That's the way the season went last year," he said. "The biggest thing we're doing, we're not talking about it. It didn't happen. Move on."

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Saints, Indians make all-district football

Seven members of the Xavier High School football team have been named to the top squad on the Class 3A District 4 all-star team.

Nic Ekland, Thomas Ickes, Dylan Eller, Michael Maher, Jay Kortemeyer, Tim Otting and Louis Hasley were named first team all-district for the Saints.

Camden Stovie, Matt Downey, Noah Clasen and Bryce Schulte were named second team all-district from Xavier. Joe Welch and Logan Brown were named to the academic all-district team.

Hayden Meister and Jack Serbousek of Marion High School were named to the all-district first team. Devin Quinn, John Carstensen, Kyle Van Meter and Kory Walsh were named second team all-district for the Indians.

Meister, Carter Stigge, Austin Loney, Eli Frazier, Austin Brown, Derek Smith, Jacob Deeter, Alex Gaffney and Ryan Whalen made the academic squad.

Saints knock off proud Indians

Marion’s hard-luck football season came to a merciful end Friday night with another tough defeat, this time a fiercely fought 37-6 loss to Xavier on the Saints home turf.

But at least Indians senior Dontavious Young closed out his career with a bang.

Down 16-0 at halftime, Marion kicker Carter Stigge opened the second half with a boot that bounced around the near the goal line. Running pell-mell downfield, Young pounced on the loose ball at the 1 yard line.

“Astonished, that’s what I was,” Young said of his fortuitous fumble recovery. “It hit one of their players, and then I think he thought it was going to go out of bounds or in the end zone.

“It was kind of amazing, but it shows you should never give up on a play ‘til the whistle blows.”

The lead was whittled two plays later when Hayden Meister made a sliding catch of a short pass from hard-nosed quarterback Gage Kray.

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3 Metro teams seek playoff berths

It will be interesting to see how many high school football teams with 2-and-7 records make the Class 4A playoffs this year.

The Kennedy Cougars will make the 32-team field with a 2-7 mark if they defeat Waterloo West at Kingston Stadium Friday night, but they're not the only ones who could advance with a 2-7 record.

Iowa City High, Clinton and Mason City also could "earn" spots in the Class 4A tournament with 2-7 marks. That would be an improvement for Mason City, which qualified a few years ago with a 1-8 record.

We can thank - or blame - the district format for all this. The only results that count are district games. The non-district games are simply exhibitions, as far as making the playoffs, so it's a lot easier to make the playoffs now.

You can lose all of your non-district games, finish fourth in your district with a wobbly record and march into the playoffs at 2-7 (and sometimes even 1-8).

Under the old conference format, it normally took at least four victories to make the playoffs, although occasionally a team would slip through with a 3-6 mark. The schools voted for this system, so now everyone has to live with it.

Washington, Linn-Mar and Xavier have clinched playoff berths. The top-ranked Warriors are 8-0 and rolling along. The sixth-ranked Lions are 7-1, with the only loss to Washington. The Saints are 5-3, but have struggled on offense in their losses to Dowling (24-2), Western Dubuque (7-6) and Iowa City Regina (21-7) with only one touchdown on offense.

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