Flyers open season with win

ST. HENRY - Football season is over. Just don't tell Marion Local.

Following their annual extended football season, the Flyers hit the hardwood for the first time Friday night and headed home with a bruising 61-53 Midwest Athletic Conference victory at St. Henry.

The pads were off, but Marion Local's aggressive and physical style of play put St. Henry in a hole early.

The Redskins made just one field goal in the first quarter and were out-rebounded 14-6 as the Flyers jumped out to a 12-4 lead after eight minutes.

"We did a whale of a job on defense in the first half. We stressed all week that we were going to have to defend them like crazy," Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "We had to maul them on the glass. I told our guys that we need to become the Marion Maulers this year."

"We just weren't mentally tough enough," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck countered. "Every year Marion is a different animal than most teams because they have great size and very good athletes. Our fundamentals have to be at their highest level when we play them, and we weren't anywhere close to where we needed to be. I would give us a D-minus grade."

The Redskins missed their first eight shots from the floor before Curtis Uhlenhake ended the drought nearly four minutes into the game. 

Tyler Mescher and Nathan Bruns opened the second quarter with back-to-back buckets to put the Flyers up by 12, 16-4. Marion maintained that margin, 28-16, at halftime.

"I thought it was important that we got off to a good start because we got a lot of kids that haven't played varsity basketball," Goettemoeller said.  "St. Henry can really spread you out and go four corners if you get behind, so it was important to get that big lead and it really helped our confidence."

The Redskins scored more points in the third quarter (19) than they did in the entire first half, but were not able to make much of a dent in the Marion Local lead.

Neither team was able to put together a run of more than four points in the third period as the Flyers led 45-35 heading into the final eight minutes.

St. Henry junior Tyler Schlarman triggered an 11-2 run that got the Redskins to within 50-49 with less than three minutes to play. Schlarman scored seven points during the run, including a big three-pointer from the top of the key.

But the St. Henry rally ran out of gas down the stretch. The Flyers were 6-of-7 from the free throw line in the final two minutes and got key buckets from Collin Everman and Tyler Prenger.

"We tried a bunch of different combinations on defense in the second half. We just couldn't keep them off the glass and turn them over in the full court," Rosenbeck said. "We finally made a run with some stops, and we couldn't execute to get over the top, so give them some credit for coming through down the stretch."

"I was really proud of how we responded at the end of the game after they cut it to one," Goettemoeller added. "Collin Everman is the only kid that doesn't play football and he's been in the gym working really hard. We got our other two guards in foul trouble tonight, and Collin stepped up, handled the ball for us and hit some big shots when we needed them."

Mescher finished with 15 points to pace the Flyers. Bruns, a 6-4 sophomore, added 12 points and 13 rebounds, to help Marion Local finish with a 42-21 edge on the boards.

Schlarman paced the Redskins with a game-high 16 points, Ryan Bruening and Curtis Uhlenhake added 11 each.

Marion Local returns to action tonight against Celina at the Fieldhouse. St. Henry (3-2, 0-1 MAC) returns to action Tuesday at Fort Loramie.