Less than a calendar week after taking down rival Columbia, the West Marion Trojans thoroughly dominated Tylertown 44-22 at home Oct. 22 to ensure they will be playing into November this year.
The win was important for West Marion (6-2, 3-1) as it clinched a playoff berth, or as head coach Brad Duncan said, the Trojans “are in the dance now.”
West Marion managed to score 32 first-half points despite running just three offensive plays in the first quarter. Tylertown actually started the game in complete control, eating up five minutes off the clock while picking up a few first downs. But the Trojans finally stiffened up to force a punt, which Qavonte Swanigan blocked and returned 29 yards for a touchdown to put them up 6-0. Duncan said the blocked punt gave the Trojans a shot in the arm and changed the tone of the game.
The Chiefs were forced to punt again after picking up two first downs on their next drive, but the snap went over the punter’s head and he then threw it away out of his own end zone to avoid a safety. But despite starting its first drive at the Tylertown 24, West Marion gave it right back to the Chiefs as Jartavious Martin was stripped at the end of a 14-yard run.
But Tylertown couldn’t do anything with the turnover, going three-and-out and punting it back to the Trojans. West Marion drove methodically down field until it faced fourth-and-goal when Jayden Duncan was able to find Martin for a 6-yard touchdown on a scramble drill to make it 13-0 with 7:35 remaining in the second quarter.
After forcing another three-and-out, West Marion needed just two plays to add to its lead. Octavious Harvey showed off great wiggle in the hole, juking three people with one move while gaining 52 yards to start the drive. On the next play, Jakaden Mark coasted into the end zone from seven yards out to put West Marion up 19-0.
A Harvey sack forced a Tylertown punt that led to another Trojans touchdown on the ensuing possession. Jayden Duncan threw a beautiful deep ball with perfect ball placement to Qavonte Swanigan, who didn’t have to break stride or adjust a muscle to haul in the 30-yard score that made it 26-0 with two minutes to go in the first half.
Tylertown then hit a deep ball to get inside the West Marion 30, but the Trojans defense stepped up immediately after. On fourth-and-10, Martin came screaming off the edge on a slot blitz to hit Chiefs quarterback Keavon Williams as he threw, causing the pass to flutter into the waiting arms of linebacker Jatavius Brooks, who returned the interception to the Chiefs 28. On the next play, Jayden Duncan threw another perfect fade for a touchdown, this time to O’Marion Husband to increase West Marion’s lead to 32-0 going into halftime.
“Defensively, the pass rush was really good. Jatavius Brooks had a really good game, and he’s starting to step up at linebacker a little bit,” Duncan said. “He had a couple of big hits on special teams as well, and I really, really like what I saw out of him. Our linebackers have a tendency to run laterally instead of attacking downhill, but (Friday) night he did a really good job attacking downhill.”
Midway through the third quarter, after breaking off runs of 15 and 20 yards, Mark scored from three yards out to make it 38-0. The Chiefs finally got on the board on the ensuing drive as the Trojans started to put in their backups with a 9-yard Gregory Dillon rushing touchdown.
Early in the fourth quarter, Larry Magee got in on the touchdown party, hauling in a 36-yard pass from Jayden Duncan. Magee ran a skinny post and outjumped Tylertown’s cornerback to corral the contested catch. Tylertown would later add two garbage-time touchdowns to make the final score appear more respectable.
Duncan said the Trojans were able to do what they wanted by running the ball effectively, hitting several deep passes and trying out some new wrinkles. They added in some Wildcat looks with direct snaps to Martin and Harvey and pushed the ball down field in the passing game more often than usual.
“We wanted to put some things on film for people to look at. We did a little bit more with some deep motion stuff and the reverse off of that one time just to show some stuff. We were experimenting a little bit, trying to see what we can find. We wanted to see what we could run besides ‘power’ maybe,” Duncan said with a laugh.
Jayden Duncan completed 80% of his passes with half of his completions going for touchdowns.
“He threw the ball well. I wish sometimes he wouldn’t take the deep shot because we have some guys underneath that are open. Jay likes to take too many chances sometimes, but hey, when you’re 8-for-10 with four touchdowns, that’s not a bad night,” Duncan, Jayden’s grandfather, said.
The Trojans close out the regular season Friday at Seminary (1-5, 0-3). Duncan said Seminary does a really good job offensively because it used to be strictly Wing-T, but now the Bulldogs are implementing more spread concepts.
“That’s something that’s a little bit different, a little bit unique from Seminary,” he said. “I know Seminary always plays us hard. It could be a situation where they’re playing to get in so we’ll have our work cut out for us.”
