Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

Marauders Rest Before Battle of the Ax

MHS Football

By Kevin Lonnquist

Staff Writer

This week is a time of soul searching for the Marcus football team. A brutal non-district schedule against the likes of Katy and Tyler Lee ended up 2-3. The latest was a 21-13 loss at Tyler Lee last Friday.

The Marauders go into the bye week looking for answers but also trying to move forward, because the District 6-5A season is starting next week with the traditional Battle of the Ax with Lewisville.

"In every game, we’ve had an opportunity to win, and we didn’t finish," junior quarterback Brad L’Huillier said. "The frustration is that we haven’t been able to capitalize on teams’ mistakes."

Marcus coach Bryan Erwin called the Tyler Lee game a "make or break" situation for his program. And while the confidence is not as high as you would expect, players don’t appear to be anxious about what has happened.

Really, they shouldn’t be. They have lost the three games by a total of 15 points. The other good news is that the games don’t count against them as they make their push toward trying to make the postseason. They start to count next week.

"We have an open mind, and we know we have to sharpen our skills and our fundamentals," senior linebacker Dylan Blount said. "The thing that Coach Erwin has told us is that we have to get back to where we need to be. That’s going to take some hard work by all of us."

Big-Play Problems

The Marcus defense’s season-long problem of surrendering big plays has contributed to the 2-3 start. It’s also why the defense is not the smothering unit it was in 2007.

Through the first five games, the Marauders have yielded seven touchdown plays of 25 or more yards. Five of those have come beyond 45 yards and all of those have occurred in the last three games. For the entire 2007 season, the defense gave up nine touchdown plays of 25 yards or more. Only three of those were from 40 or more yards.

"We’ve got to find a way to cut down on the home run play," Blount said. "It might be a case of guys not being in the right spot, or we’re not reading our keys as fast as we should. But we have to be better at that."

Marcus’ 2008 non-district schedule – Grapevine, Plano West, Keller Fossil Ridge, Katy and Tyler Lee – is a little better than the 2007 version of Grapevine, Keller and Mansfield Summit. However, 2008 opponents Grapevine and Keller Fossil Ridge, 2007 playoff teams, are a combined 0-8.

However, the defense has still seen a little bit of a slide. Last year, it gave up 244.1 yards per game. This year, it is giving up 275.2 yards per game.

Notable

Running back Degan Newsom (undisclosed injury) did not play against Tyler Lee. However, he is still expected to return for the District 6-5A opener against Lewisville, Oct. 10 at Texas Stadium.

At least the Marauders are not beating themselves. Through the first five games, they are averaging only four penalties for about 43 yards per game.

From the all-or-nothing department: In its two wins, Marcus is averaging 52 points. In its three losses, it’s averaging 16.6 points.