During the first three weeks of the season, West Marion struggled to close out halves.
In any sport, winning games isn’t just about who has the more talented team or better coaching staff. Teams have to learn how to win, especially in close ballgames. That’s why so many teams that lack experience struggle to find a way to close out games.
That had been the Achilles heel for the Trojans in the early portion of the season and something head coach Brad Duncan has talked at length about. Well, Friday night, West Marion (1-3) finally figured it out and came away with its first win of the season in a 26-21 road victory over Raleigh.
“We talked all week about trying to stay focused throughout and try to learn to close the deal, and that’s what we ended up having to do. At the end of the (first) half, we had the same situation as last week with a lead, but we were able to get the stop this time,” Duncan said. “They had a drive going with about 30 seconds left in the game, and we stopped (Raleigh) again where we didn’t stop (East Marion) the week before. That’s three years in a row where we had to hold them on the last drive to win the game.”
West Marion scored on its first two drives of the game to take an early 14-0 lead, but Raleigh answered with a touchdown of its own in the second quarter. But the Trojans stepped up before the end of the first half and came up with a big stop to carry a 14-7 lead into the break.
However, the Lions scratched and clawed their way back with 14 third-quarter points to take a 21-14 lead into the fourth quarter. But West Marion regained its composure and put together back-to-back scoring drives to take a late 26-21 lead before coming up with a stop at the end of the game to hold on for the win.
“We got out the gates early and scored on the first play from scrimmage. We scored on our second drive, then kind of hit a lull and lost focus a little bit. It went back-and-forth for a little bit, then we score with three minutes to go and we had to hold on to win,” Duncan said. “It wasn’t the prettiest win by any means, but we’ll sure as heck take it.”
For years, the Trojans have relied on guys like Josh and Adrian Miller, Damien Johnson and Caleb Battie, who all went onto play college ball, to come up with clutch plays to seal the deal. Duncan said it was extremely encouraging to see his young guys figure out how to win the end of each half.
“It was so big. If you think about our scores at half in every game, it’s been a ball game then we kind of disappear,” he said. “To be able to maintain that focus was really big to us as a coaching staff and as a team. This group has to learn how to win. They watched everybody else do it for years, and they’re starting to understand they have to make those plays now and get those stops.”
The Trojans offense was able to take advantage of a favorable matchup with their spread attack, throwing for four touchdowns, against a team that plays in a district known for old-school rushing attacks.
“Jeremiah threw the ball well again; Charles ran the ball for 80 yards; Cyrus had two touchdown catches and Qavonte and Dontavius had one. We got into some mismatches particularly early,” Duncan said. “(Raleigh) isn’t used to seeing spread stuff. They play a 3-4 defense and when we came out in four- and five-receiver sets, they didn’t quite know how to cover it.”
Conversely, the Trojans defense is used to seeing spread team in their district, so facing a run-based Wing-T offense was a change. But Duncan was proud of how his defense adjusted to the tough task.
“Defensively, our guys were awesome,” he said. “Keyon Brister had probably the best game he’s had since last year. Nolan (Miller) probably had the best game he’s had all year. Against that Wing-T, you have to have somebody to set the edge and most of the time it has to be that corner, and Nolan did a heck of a job doing it this week. Blaten Norris had a really good game inside again. It was a good win.”
West Marion will return home Friday night to take on Forrest County AHS (3-1). The Aggies are very similar to Raleigh in scheme as their head coach came from the Raleigh coaching tree.
“They run the Wing-T as well,” Duncan said. “They’re kind of a mirror of what we just saw because coach (Jeff) Stockstill had been at Raleigh the past few years, so defensively and offensively it looks a lot like what we saw from Raleigh. We have to try to find some mismatches offensively. They execute better and play harder than what we saw at Raleigh, but it’s really a mirror image.”
The Trojans will once again have their hands full with a tough matchup, but if last Friday night’s win over Raleigh win was any indication, they might just have figured out to win tough matchups.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Pictured Above: Charles Lewis breaks a run to the outside against East. | Photo by Mark Rogers
