Despite not having the ball until the final minute of the first quarter, East Marion ended up scoring first in a 48-8 defeat of Salem last Friday.
Salem (0-6, 0-1) won the toss and the Wildcats elected to kick to East Marion, recovering an onside kick at the Eagles’ 49-yard line. Salem drove down inside the Red Zone and even had an 11-yard touchdown pass called back for a hold, but failed to score turning the ball over to East Marion at its own 3-yard line with 1:01 left in the first quarter.
The Eagles (3-2, 1-0) quickly took advantage and despite the poor field position, scored on Devin Daniels’ 97-yard run on the first offensive play for the Eagles. Jarveon Howard then busted through the line on the two-point conversion to make it 8-0 Eagles as the first quarter ended.
“It’s pretty much the craziest first quarter I’ve ever seen,” EMHS coach Kevin Jackson said. “They were able to get an onside kick and keep it almost the entire first quarter. We got some penalties that kept the drive alive and kept our defense on the field big time. We were finally able to get the ball back and Devin made a great run to put some points on the board.”
As in the first quarter, East Marion’s defense made big plays when it needed to and prevented the Wildcats from scoring until late in the fourth quarter.
“The defense bent, but it didn’t break,” Jackson said. “They made a stop at the goal line early and it was a big play – one that shifted the momentum to our side for the first time since the onside kick.”
East Marion continued to have momentum in the second quarter as Howard picked off a Salem pass and rambled 24 yards to the house for the Eagles’ second score. Howard also ran the two-point conversion in for a 16-0 East Marion lead with 11:50 left in the second quarter.
It didn’t take long for the East Marion offense, led by Howard and Daniels, to score again. After a fumble recovery on the Eagles’ 27-yard line, Howard ran for a 24-yard gain and then Daniels followed with a 34-yard gain. Daniels then scooped up a fumbled snap and ran 12 yards for the Eagles’ third touchdown with 7:57 left in the half. Howard then punched the ball in for the two-point conversion and East Marion took a commanding
24-0 lead.
After a big sack by East Marion’s Wanya Cook, which forced Salem to punt deep inside its own territory, the Eagles recovered the fumbled snap on the Salem 1-yard line, but failed to score, being turned away after Howard was hit in the backfield twice and Daniels was stopped short of the goal line.
On the ensuing offensive series, Darrin Haines picked off a Salem pass that quickly led to another score. On second down from the Wildcat’s 30-yard line, Howard dashed in for the score and capped the drive with a two-point conversion to make the score 32-0 with 2:32 left in the half.
Haines figured prominently in the next offensive series as he hauled in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Daniels with 57 seconds remaining in the half, giving the Eagles a 40-0 lead as the intermission approached.
Midway through the third quarter, Howard ran in from the Salem 7-yard line for the Eagles’ final touchdown of the night. Howard also ran in his sixth two-point conversion to make it 48-0 with 8:24 left in the third quarter.
With a running clock since the beginning of the second half, time passed quickly, and Salem got its only score of the night on a 50-yard run by Ben Rushing with 3:53 left in the game. The Wildcats made the two-point conversion and the final score was 48-8.
“We’ve got a big test with Lumberton (4-1, 1-0) coming to town next week,” Jackson said. “We’ve got to execute better. This game was kind of sloppy tonight. We’ve got a week to get ready for the defending South State champs.”
Jackson said many of the adjustments will be minor as the squad prepares for Friday night.
“We missed some blocking assignments up front, even on some of the touchdown runs,” he said. “Devin and Jarveon made some really good runs – a lot of it was on their own. Our offensive line started out kind of slow. They were blitzing a lot and we didn’t pick up some of the blitzes. We’ve got a lot to study. We’ll get on the game film first thing Saturday morning and start preparing for Lumberton.”
East Marion’s Friday night contest kicks off at 7 p.m. at Leslie Peters Field.
Pictured Above: Jarveon Howard sidesteps a Salem defender Friday night. | Photo by Mark Rogers
