by Ben Murphy
Sports Writer
If there was an 8-man football team that had a chance to dethrone Marion atop the West Michigan ‘D’ League standings, it would most likely have been Mesick. The visiting Eagles showed they were once again the better team on Saturday, as they turned what was a close game early on into a 50-6 blowout.
“I thought this was the most complete game we have played this year but we still had to many penalties,” Marion head coach Chad Grundy said. “Our effort was great and we played physical. Mesick played us hard early on but toward the end of the half we found an offensive set we really liked and were about to score at the end of the half and then get four more scores in the third quarter.”
Marion scored two touchdowns in the first quarter to get things going with a 14-0 lead. First was a Braden Prielipp two-yard touchdown run and the second was a Mason Salisbury touchdown run, which was also two yards.
The Bulldogs got on the board thanks to a 39-yard touchdown pass to pull within 14-6, but Marion made it 22-6 by the half with a B. Prielipp touchdown run.
The Eagles put the game away in the third quarter with four touchdowns. Gavin Prielipp raced in from 67-yards out and Salisbury had scoring runs of 20, 10 and 35 yards.
Salisbury had his usual big game, going eight-of-nine passing for 127 yards and he also rushed 14 times for 159 yards and four touchdowns. B. Prielipp carried it 12 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns and G. Prielipp rushed 123 yards and one touchdown.
Aadin Yowell also had four receptions for 79 yards, B. Prielipp had three grabs for 27 yards and Cole Meyer had one catch for 21 yards.
Weston Cox had 5.5 tackles, Meyer and James Williams had five tackles apiece and Yowell took down 3.5.
“I thought Braden Prielipp, Gavin Prielipp, Alex Johnson and Aadin Yowell had good games on offense,” Grundy said. “On defense Mason Salisbury, Cole Meyer, Weston Cox, Aaron Whitney, Wyatt Schmidt and James Williams did a great job containing the Mesick offense.”
Marion (3-0 overall, 2-0 WMD) heads to Baldwin (0-2, 0-2) today (Friday). The Panthers are coming off a loss to Manistee Catholic Central last week, 50-14. Baldwin forfeited a game earlier this season due to lack of players, but appears to be good to go for the rest of the year.
“They are a team with a good quarterback and will try to spread you out and run their quarterback,” Grundy said.