Vengeance denied

MARIA STEIN - Coming off a 31-6 loss to Marion Local in the opener last season, Wapakoneta was out for revenge.

After three quarters of struggling against the Redskins in the trenches, though, Marion's special teams tipped the scale toward the Flyers.

A pair of long punt returns set up Marion for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to earn a 21-7 win over Wapak in the football season opener at Booster Stadium on Friday.

"Tough game," Flyers coach Tim Goodwin said. "Wapak really came out prepared, very well prepared. They game-planned us like a playoff game. That's what I told the coaches, 'Holy crap, they're not messing around for Week 1.' "

The Flyers took the lead with early in the fourth after a defensive stop led to a punt to Kyle Otte near the 50, which he took down the right sideline - with some help from fellow returner Nate Buschur, who delivered a key block to start the return. Otte and Darren Meier alternated punishing runs, with Otte recovering his own fumble near the 12 to keep the drive going, until Otte took a pitch to the left and survived a big hit to cross the goal line for the go-ahead score.

A low snap doomed the PAT to keep it at 13-7, but after Nick Ranly batted down a third-down Caleb Moyer pass, Buschur and Otte worked their magic again. Otte caught the punt around the Marion 40, Buschur pancaked a defender, and Otte got all the way to the 20 before punter Kyle Beach brought him down to save a touchdown.

The Redskins stopped Darren Meier a yard short on a third-and-four, but Otte took a direct snap around the right side, broke through an arm tackle, and darted into the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown run. A successful two-point try made it 21-7 Flyers with 4:51.

"Special teams, we work hard on them, and we put our good kids on there," Goodwin said. "It's a chance to make a big play."

Wapakoneta started at the 50 after a pooch kick and a 25-yard return, but had a drop at the goal line and failed a fourth-down try at the Marion 29. Meier fumbled the ball to give the Redskins one last gasp with just over two minutes to play, but a big sack by Simon Partington and a holding penalty put Wapakoneta in third-and-34 from their own 46, and a fourth-down drop sealed the game.

The Flyers had their own opportunities that got away, including their only long drive early in the third. An 18-yard quarterback keeper by Hess and a 36-yard trick-play pass from Otte to Hess set Marion up in the red zone midway through the third. Drew Lause carried the ball to the 9, but a tackle-for-loss, a drop and a false start led to third-and-goal from the 15, and Otte wasn't able to fight through physical coverage on the left sideline as Hess' pass sailed incomplete. Carson Bills' 32-yard field goal attempt was tipped and fell short, and the score remained tied.

A holding penalty at the start of the second quarter also wiped out a 50-yard run by Otte that would have put the Flyers deep in Redskins territory.

The Redskins dominated time of possession in the first half, but Marion's Ryan Homan forced a fumble at the Flyers' 27 to short-circuit Wapakoneta's first drive of the game and two highlight-reel plays by Meier - a tackle for loss where he shot through the gap and a quarterback hit along the sideline to force an incompletion - stalled the second, keeping the game tied as Marion's offense struggled to move the ball early.

"We told them at halftime, 'If you're getting outhit, there's nothing the coaches can do,'" Goodwin said. "That's what was happening in the first half. I don't think we were not ready to play, I think Wapak was just really ready to play, and they had a good gameplan."

The Flyers got a break when a high snap sent Wapakoneta punter Kyle Beach scrambling after a loose ball deep in Redskins territory. With a horde of Flyers in hot pursuit, Beach kicked the ball through the back of the end zone, which earned an additional five-yard penalty from the spot and set Marion up at the Wapakoneta 19.

Buschur was awarded a diving catch just above the turf to move the ball to the 12, and four plays later, Hess took the ball right and barely crossed the plain before a Wapakoneta defender poked out the ball. The referees confirmed the touchdown to give Marion a 7-0 lead with 4:28 to go in the first half.

"Field position was huge," Goodwin said. "All of our scoring drives were in plus-territory."

After an expiring play clock forced Wapakoneta coach Travis Moyer to burn his final timeout with 1:39 left in the second quarter and the Redskins at the Marion 42, Caleb Moyer found Will Campbell across the middle, with Campbell heading to the right sideline as the momentum of the Flyers' defenders was carrying them left. Campbell outran Marion's Drew Seitz to the sideline before being pushed out of bounds at the 2-yard line with a 40-yard gain, and Connor Meckstroth punched it in on the next play to tie the game with 1:26 left in the half.

The game remained tied through the third, and after Aiden Eifert boomed a punt into the end zone with 15 seconds left in the third quarter, the Marion defense got a huge stop to set up the first short field. Seitz made a tackle behind the line for a three-yard loss, Buschur broke up a pass with tight coverage over the middle and Ranly and Meier combined to stuff Jace Knous at the 17-yard-line on third down. A play later, Otte made the play to give the Flyers the momentum for good.

Hess led Marion in rushing with 43 yards as the Flyers totaled 117 yards on the ground and 197 yards on offense.

Marion returns to action next week when McComb comes to Booster Stadium.