Flyers cruise past Canadian opponent

MARIA STEIN - One week after a tough loss to open the season, the Marion Local Flyers earned a trouble-free victory on Friday night at Booster Stadium.

Marion played host to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School from Mississauga, Ontario for the second time in three years. Much like the last time, the Flyers had their way with the Lions.

The Flyers scored early and often against on overmatched Mount Carmel squad in cruising to a 48-7 triumph.

The Flyers are now 1-1 on the year while the Lions don't begin their regular-season schedule for another three weeks.

In 2009, Marion's 61-14 victory over Mount Carmel provided much-needed computer points that allowed the Flyers to cruise into the playoffs despite a 5-5 record. With its total student enrollment around 1,800, Mount Carmel will count as a Division I school in Ohio's Harbin computer-points system. This means the Flyers will gain Division I points for beating the Lions and also for every team the Lions defeat.

As for the game, it was obvious that the Lions were out of their element by playing with little practice time, along with the unfamiliar American football rules. The Lions play their league games by Canadian football rules, which include 12 players on each side and running starts prior to snaps, and they were clearly not ready for a disciplined squad from the heartland of high school football.

"This was a great atmosphere for us to come into," said Mount Carmel's coach Patrick McCallion. "Football is king here and you could tell that by the crowd and the energy under the lights tonight. This will be the toughest game we play all year, and it will really get us prepared for our regular season."

The Flyers began the game with a balanced attack as quarterback Adam Bertke completed three passes for 47 yards and tailback Jake Heitkamp rushed five times for 18 yards, including the game's first score.

As it turned out, the opening drive was the only sustained possession of the first half for the Flyers, who scored the rest of their points in quick-strike fashion. Lee Pierron hauled in a 78-yard pass from Bertke to set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Ryan Jacobs, and Heitkamp later raced to paydirt from 37 yards out to give the hosts a 20-0 first-quarter lead.

The Marion defense got into the scoring act next when Nate Wendel picked off a pass and galloped 42 yards for a score and Alex Rosenbeck picked off a pass to give the hosts the ball at the Lions' 34-yard line. Just four plays later Rosenbeck found Jordan Rethman open in the corner of the end zone for another score. Late in the first half Bertke fired a seed to Dylan Thobe for a 27-yard scoring strike.

The 41-0 halftime score, the suffocating heat and Mount Carmel's small roster convinced both sides to go with 10-minute quarters in the second half and the backups got most of the action.

"I thought we came out and executed pretty well and our passing game was pretty crisp," said Marion's coach Tim Goodwin. "We did what we set out to do tonight, but we had all kinds of advantages tonight with their bus ride, the weather and the different stages of the season that we're at. The deck was stacked against (Mount Carmel) tonight."

The Flyers will begin their Midwest Athletic Conference season on Friday when they entertain the 0-2 New Bremen Cardinals.