Get used to hearing the names Octavious Harvey, Larry Magee and Jakaden Mark this season. The dynamic trio for the Trojans was responsible for all 389 of West Marion’s yards Friday night, on top of Harvey intercepting a pass, as the Trojans beat Seminary 27-21 in their district opener at home.
West Marion racked up more than 300 yards on the ground and played complementary defense, a formula that has worked for the Trojans for several years.
“The O-line performed pretty well again, and we executed,” head coach Brandon Thornhill said. “We saw something that we thought we could do with them that we didn’t do the week before and just went with that. It worked out in our favor.”
On the opening possession, Seminary turned a horribly broken play into an 18-yard touchdown. It was a high snap that the quarterback sent flying into the air when he tried to corral it, but the running back caught it cleanly, found a huge hole up the gut and knifed through the Trojans defense. The PAT put West Marion down seven less than a minute into the game.
When Seminary got the ball back, its quarterback had a potential highlight-reel play become a takeaway for West Marion. The Bulldogs quarterback eluded an early rush and hurdled a Trojans lineman on the ground, but then he launched a deep ball skyward and short, which Harvey high pointed for the interception.
Thanks to great blocking and a nifty open-field move, the Trojans took advantage of the momentum change on the very next play. Right guard Corobbin Lee pulled out in front of Mark and delivered a great kick out block on the linebacker, opening a massive hole for Mark to sprint through before he juked the safety on his way to a 69-yard touchdown to tie it 7-7.
Early in the second quarter, a bonehead play by Seminary on a Trojans punt gave West Marion great field position. The short punt wasn’t fielded by the Bulldogs, but with the ball bouncing around and close to coming to a stop, a Seminary player reached down to grab it. Because he touched it, the Trojans were then able to recover it as if it were a fumble. They were able to take a 14-7 lead three plays later on a Mark 2-yard touchdown.
With just over a minute to play in the first half, West Marion extended its lead to two scores by catching the Bulldogs napping. Mark, who had 11 carries to that point, was split into the slot and ran a seam route down the middle of the field and caught Seminary’s defensive back flatfooted. Magee hit him in stride for a 38-yard touchdown that made it 21-7.
Although it appeared West Marion was the one snake bitten to open the second half with a promising drive getting backed up nearly 40 yards with back-to-back-to-back penalties, the unthinkable happened. On West Marion’s punt, the ball was just about to come to a stop when another Bulldogs player ran over to the ball and had it touch his foot, allowing the Trojans to recover it again.
“I really don’t know what they were thinking,” Thornhill joked. “Our guys are pretty heady about that and look for it. I think kids sometimes just panic when they see that ball.”
However, Magee was picked off a few plays later on a deep ball, setting up a Bulldogs touchdown. Seminary’s running back slipped out of the backfield and was wide open on a wheel route for an 18-yard touchdown, making it a one-possession game.
Harvey put the Trojans back up by two scores early in the fourth quarter at the end of a long West Marion drive. Mark, Magee and Harvey all carried the rock for nice gains, leading to Harvey punching it in from the 1 and extending the Trojans lead to 27-14.
Seminary countered right back, though, using its passing game to get down to the 1, where the Bulldogs punched it in on the ground.
West Marion milked the majority of the fourth quarter away on the ensuing drive by picking up three first downs with its rushing attack.
Thornhill said the Trojans defense is improving each week and should only get better as it gets healthier in the coming weeks.
“They got better and made some plays. They only gave up one big play this week,” he said. “We tried to stop their passing game, which is what they really want to do, and we were able to keep everything in front of us and take the passing game away.”
West Marion will head down to Bay Saint Louis Friday night to take on St. Stanislaus in a district matchup. Kickoff on the Coast is at 7 p.m.
