In what proved to be one of the ugliest East Marion games of the season, the Eagles were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs Friday night by Velma Jackson in a 48-0 loss in Camden.
The Eagles (3-8) never could seem to gain control of the game even though they moved the ball well at times and came up with a few stops. What hurt East Marion the most were penalties and missed opportunities combining with how good Velma Jackson (8-2) is.
“They were real physical and played real good on defense,” Eagles head coach Brad Hughes said. “We just weren’t able to capitalize on some opportunities we had early that might have gave us a different outcome.”
The second-year coach added when you run an offense that is predicated on ball control with the running game, like East Marion does, you can’t play behind the sticks, which the Eagles did all game because of penalties.
“It’s hard to recover from that one time, let alone multiple times,” he said. “It seemed like we kept getting in that situation. It’s been the case all year. Going into next year with this offseason, that’s something we’re really going to have to improve. We have to be more disciplined to eliminate a lot of those mistakes. It kills you.”
Both offenses started the game poorly — East Marion went backwards on its first two drives thanks to penalties while the Falcons fumbled a handoff on their opening possession — but Velma Jackson finally put it together on its second drive. Following long plays on the ground and through the air, Terrance Mack punched it in from a yard out to give the Falcons an early 8-0 lead.
The third drive for the Eagles was even more disastrous than the first two. A 14-yard holding penalty put them well behind the chains, then a bad snap on the punt gave Velma Jackson the ball at the East Marion 9-yard line. On the next play, the Falcons were in the end zone again to go up 16-0. Velma Jackson lined up with bunch trips tight to the line, and the route combination completely fooled the Eagles. The back receiver ran a wheel route to the wide side of the field, but all three of East Marion’s defenders on that side covered the two inside receivers and left Carsyn Day wide open for the easy pitch-and-catch.
East Marion’s horrible first quarter got even worse on the ensuing kickoff. Chris Magee was unable to field the long kickoff, and the ball skirted out of bounds at the 2. Because Magee touched it first, it was not a penalty, forcing the Eagles to start the drive backed up deep in their own end. However, it turned out to be the best drive of the game for the Eagles.
They switched to the spread with Amere Woodham at quarterback, which gave the Eagles a spark. A 31-yard pass to Demetrius Allen and several nice runs by Jadarrius Mallard led to a 96-yard drive that had East Marion facing a third-and-goal at the Velma Jackson 2. But Deundre Ruffin was stuffed on third down near the goal line, and he never made it out of the backfield on fourth down as Velma Jackson got great penetration to ruin East Marion’s best scoring opportunity.
Midway through the second quarter, it appeared East Marion’s defense was going force a second consecutive punt, but another great play call by the Falcons led to a 54-yard touchdown. They lined up up in a typical three-by-one spread look with three receivers to the left. But they motioned Mack out of the backfield to the left to give them quads. Quarterback Terrelle Smith fired a quick screen out to Mack, who had a wall of blockers in front of him, and he was off to the races to extend the lead to 22-0.
Then, after consecutive holding calls backed the Eagles up into a second-and-31, Woodham threw a lame duck off his back foot that was picked off by the Falcons with less than 20 seconds to go in the half. The limited amount of time left didn’t matter for Velma Jackson, though, as the Falcons connected for a 34-yard passing touchdown on the next play to take a commanding 29-0 lead into halftime.
A long kickoff return to open the second half set up a three-play, 32-yard scoring drive for the Falcons as Gavin Griffin capped it off with a 2-yard plunge. The extra point made it 36-0 less than a minute into the third quarter. Late in the third quarter, Mack put the Falcons up 42-0 with a 4-yard touchdown run. Velma Jackson added one more score in the fourth quarter that made it 48-0 with a fumble returned for a score.
Although the Eagles aren’t losing a lot of players to graduation, they will be without several starters, including Woodham, Ruffin, Elijah Alston, Deuce Johnson and Kevin Johnson. Hughes said East Marion is really going to miss the senior group.
However, the majority of East Marion’s starters will be back in 2022. Quarterback LJ Andrews will be back from injury, along with Mallard, Ka’Ron Weary, Chris Magee and the entire offensive line to lead the offense. Defensively, eight of East Marion’s 11 starters against Velma Jackson Friday will be back.
