Undefeated Magee arrived in Foxworth Friday night with an explosive offense averaging close to 50 points per game, but West Marion’s smothering defense shut the other Trojans down to lead West to a 12-7 victory.
West Marion (8-0, 2-0) went into game allowing just 4.7 points per game and had yet to allow an opponent to top 200 yards offensively. While Magee (7-1, 1-1) did end the 200-yard streak with 256, West Marion only allowed one scoring drive and limited dynamic quarterback Chandler Pittman to just 111 yards passing and 33 rushing.
“They’ve been scoring a lot of points,” West Marion head coach Brad Duncan said. “I was asked during the week, ‘Do you have to score 30 to beat them?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think so. I think our defense can slow them down a little bit.’ The defense did slow them down, and I’m really proud of the way they played. Take away the one (scoring) drive, and it was really good defense.”
While the win was impressive and kept West Marion’s record unblemished, the Trojans aren’t resting on what they’ve accomplished through eight weeks.
“There’s a lot of excitement going on, beating an undefeated team. A lot of people doubt us. Magee was supposed to win, but we have to get better,” senior quarterback Jeremiah Holmes following the game. “There’s no more room for excuses. There’s no room for excuses from the quarterbacks, the receivers, the O-line; there’s no room for lounging around at practice if we want to get where we want to get.”
The road only gets tougher from here on out as West Marion will make the short trek across the Pearl River Thursday to take on rival Columbia (7-0, 2-0) for the Marion County Football Championship.
West Marion started the game Friday with an imposing 11-play drive that featured 10 runs by five different ball carriers and was capped off by a 2-yard touchdown by Holmes. It was a quarterback power that Holmes went untouched on thanks to perfect blocks by Teddy Williams, Larry Magee and Blake Lowery.
After forcing a 3-and-out, West Marion marched into the red zone, but Holmes was intercepted going for it on fourth down. He tried to hit Qavonte Swanigan in a small window while scrambling, but the throw was slightly off the mark and picked by the safety.
“We had plenty of chances to score more points last week and this week. We get in the red zone and cough it up,” Holmes said. “We can’t do that no more.”
Magee took advantage of the turnover and took a 7-6 lead with Pittman scoring on a 6-yard quarterback sweep midway through the second quarter.
A bubble screen that Swanigan was able to get to the sideline on went for 54 yards on the next possession and set up a Larry Magee 14-yard touchdown run to put West Marion up 12-7 with 3:07 remaining in the first half. Jordyn Mahaffey opened up the hole with a solid lead block, and Larry Magee ran over and spun away from a defender to reach the end zone.
Magee got the ball to open the second half but was forced into a 4th-and-27 thanks to a pair of West Marion sacks and had to punt. West Marion then put together another long drive thanks to its physical run game and converted two fourth downs, including a 15-yard completion from Jayden Duncan to Larry Magee on a fake punt, but a personal foul penalty halted the drive just outside of the red zone.
On the ensuing drive, Magee’s Jawon Shaw broke free for a 44-yard run, but Swanigan, who was at one point 10 yards behind the play, chased Shaw down, punched the ball loose and recovered it to prevent a potential touchdown. West Marion couldn’t do anything offensively following the takeaway and had to punt, but another Trojans defensive back made a great play to generate a turnover once again on Magee’s next possession.
From the West Marion 45, Pittman launched a deep ball to Xavier Franks, but cornerback Ott Mitchell defended the route perfectly as if the pass was intended for him and high pointed the ball to come down with the interception. Franks had been Magee’s leading playmaker all year, but Mitchell limited the 6-foot-2 receiver to just four receptions for 19 yards.
Following another West Marion punt, Magee sped up its tempo offensively and was able to march into Trojans territory with relative ease, but West Marion’s defense answered the call once again. It stuffed two runs and forced an incompletions to reach fourth down then Octavious Harvey came free on a delayed blitz to wrap up Pittman before Ka’Marius Husband helped him finish off the sack for a turnover on downs.
West Marion was forced to punt once again with three minutes remaining, but Magee’s Josh Sanders muffed it and Larry Magee pounced on it to allow West Marion to run out the clock.
“It was a dog fight. That was two undefeated teams going at each other, and I’m very proud to get the W,” Duncan said. “I really thought we could move the ball on them, and we didn’t move it on them. They were better defensively than we thought they were going to be. Coach (Teddy) Dyess and his guys did a heck of a job preparing for our run game. That was two good teams going at it.”
The Trojans were held to 154 rushing yards on 3.6 yards per carry and threw for 149. Swanigan was the leading receiver with 94 yards on four receptions, while Jartavious “Tater Rabbit” Martin led the rushing attack with 46 yards on eight carries. Martin and O’Marion Husband led the defense with seven tackles, and Harvey, Mahaffey, Lowery, Swanigan and Blaten Norris each had a tackle for loss.
Pictured Above: West Marion's Larry Magee tries to break free of an arm tackle against Magee Friday night. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
