Saturday, September 17th, 2022
Still flying high
Flyers earn big MAC win over Cardinals
By Tom Haines
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Darren Meier (24) runs through the hole as Flyers lineman Jake Topp (56) and Shane Fleck block against New Bremen at Booster Stadium on Friday.
MARIA STEIN - For nearly a quarter, New Bremen traded blows with Marion Local, but back-to-back Flyers breaks quickly shut the door.
Kyle Otte scored a 22-yard touchdown to put Marion on the board late in the first and a Landon Arling interception set up Darren Meier from a yard out just 12 seconds later, and the Cardinals never recovered on the way to a 38-16 Marion victory in a crucial Midwest Athletic Conference football game at Booster Stadium on Friday.
"What to take away is, we're not there yet," New Bremen coach Chris Schmidt said. "We've got room to grow and we need to grow. This group's got some lofty goals and I'm good with those lofty goals, but we're really going to have to learn what it takes to hit those goals. We got to get better if we're going to go where we want to go."
After the Flyers drove 51 yards and deep into New Bremen (4-1, 2-1 MAC) territory, the Cardinals defense stiffened, with Ben Sailer tackling Otte behind the line to force a fourth-and-5. Otte got the ball on a direct snap and sprinted wide left, surviving two tackles short of the line to gain and breaking another to find daylight on the left sideline for a score with 24 seconds left in the first.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Landon Arling is tackled just short of the goal line on an interception return by New Bremen's Hunter Schaefer (28) and David Homan at Booster Stadium on Friday.
After the kickoff, New Bremen quarterback David Homan looked for running back Hunter Schaefer on a screen to the left and instead found Flyers linebacker Landon Arling, who turned back for the interception and rumbled all the way down to the Cardinals 1. Darren Meier got the handoff and punched it in on the next play to put Marion up 14-0 with 12 seconds remaining in the quarter.
"We had some different stuff that we thought might work, but you never know," Marion coach Tim Goodwin said of his defense. "We just kept mixing it up."
On the other side of the quarter break, Homan rolled left on a pass attempt, ducked through a sack attempt by Jake Topp, and ran into two other Flyers, who knocked out the ball. Topp dove on the fumble to set up Marion (5-0, 3-0 MAC) at the New Bremen 22.
Five plays later, Meier dove into the end zone for his second touchdown, and an offside penalty on the PAT set up Otte's two-yard two-point conversion run to make it 22-0.
"Marion's defense is always hard to move the ball against consistently, and that was the case tonight," Schmidt said. "What you don't want to do is turn the ball over on top of that. Our defense is a good defense, but we put them in some tough spots tonight."
New Bremen stopped a Marion fourth down and came back with an eight-play, 57-yard drive for a 30-yard Schaefer field goal, but the Flyers came back with a field-goal drive of their own to keep the margin at 22 heading into the half.
The Cardinals had multiple opportunities of their own early, starting with a fourth-down pick by Aaron Thieman on the Flyers' first drive. Thieman returned the ball into Marion territory, but a block-in-the-back penalty brought the ball back to the Cardinals 35, where they went three-and-out.
Drew Lause fumbled the ball on the Flyers' next play from scrimmage and Hayden Zeller fell on it near midfield, but the Cardinals gained just three yards and punted to set up the Flyers' first scoring drive.
"We just didn't play well enough tonight to beat a team like Marion, and obviously, a lot of the credit goes to them," Schmidt said. "For a large portion of the game, they just outhit us and out-played us."
The New Bremen defense stiffened after halftime, forcing three third-quarter punts, and the offense got a jolt on a fake punt conversion on its first drive. Hayden Zeller sent a wobbler over the middle to a wide-open Homan near the marker, and Homan juked his way down the field for a 46-yard gain.
Three plays later, Homan found Grant Dicke in the right side of the end zone for a nine-yard touchdown pass, making it a two-possession game even with the extra point blocked.
New Bremen went for it on another fourth down at the Marion 37, but Ryan Homan came down with an interception along the right sideline. The Cardinals almost got another fourth-down conversion to start the fourth quarter when Aaron Thieman found Ben Sailer downfield on a trick-play pass, but the Cardinals were flagged for an ineligible man downfield and opted to punt rather than try again.
Marion took over and leaned heavily on Meier, who led the Flyers on a 13-play drive that chewed up almost seven minutes. Meier finished it off with an 11-yard touchdown run to all but ice the game.
"I still think we have a ways to go," Goodwin said of the Flyers' offense. "We have some good players who can make plays. I think the key to our offense is how good can our offensive line get, and they've improved for sure, but we got a ways to go up there."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Aaron Thieman (1) and David Homan tackle Marion Local running back Kyle Otte at Booster Stadium on Friday.
David Homan drove the Cardinals down the field and cut into the lead with a 22-yard pass, but the onside kick bounced off his hands and Otte recovered, and Meier broke through the line on third down for a 55-yard touchdown run.
Meier finished with 158 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries.
"He's just a bulldog," Goodwin said. "Doesn't say anything, just works and is physical."
Marion travels to 2021 Division V state champion Versailles next Friday, while New Bremen gets a chance to bounce back when it hosts Fort Recovery.
