SHANE SHOEMAKER
Writer
Leading up to the game, Marion County was given plenty of bulletin-board material when a livestream video captured an overconfident Gordonsville player saying, “We’re gonna run in their house and take it over.” But a decisive 42-14 win over the Tigers made it clear that no team was going to come into Bill Baxter Stadium and push the Warriors around.
“They talked about us all week and our kids… one thing I can say about our group is they’re good boys but they’re mean boys and they handled it the best way they could,” Warriors’ coach Tim Starkey said. “They didn’t get caught up in it and they just took care of business tonight on the field.”
Class 2A’s defending champions fed off their home crowd, which between the infamous train whistle and “start the buses” chants early in the fourth quarter, created a kind of melodic symphony that pushed the Warriors (12-1) through to a quarterfinal victory.
Quarterback Zaiden Humphrey gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead after capping a six-play opening drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. It looked as if Marion might run away with it early in the second quarter when Mason Mays picked up 29 yards on a catch and run to set up first-and-goal at the 6-yard line. Ashton Richards punched it in to make it 14-0. But things tightened quickly.
Gordonsville (12-1) leaned on its passing attack to claw back into the game. First, the Warriors were burned on a 48-yard touchdown that cut the lead to seven. Then pass plays of 12 and 31 yards on the next drive opened the rushing attack for the Tigers, who tied the game at 14 heading into halftime.
Marion responded with 28 unanswered points in the second half, beginning when Humphrey dodged multiple defenders and sprinted 62 yards for a go-ahead touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter to swing the momentum back to the Warriors.
“I wasn’t supposed to get the ball — I pulled it,” Humphrey said of the play call.
The junior quarterback wasn’t finished. A botched Gordonsville handoff resulted in a fumble recovery for Marion, and two personal foul penalties pushed the ball inside the Tigers’ 15. Humphrey eventually hit the end zone again, but the exclamation point came just a few plays later on his pick-six.
“Zaiden Humphrey is back,” Starkey said emphatically. “He is the kid we thought he was going to be all winter, all summer. And everybody got to see it firsthand here tonight.”
Humphrey accounted for 173 of Marion’s 306 total yards and finished with four touchdowns. Mays added 96 total yards and one score.
The Warriors will face their final test before hoping to return to the TSSAA Class 2A BlueCross Bowl when they travel to play Eagleton (10-3) in the semifinals this Friday.
Photos by Marilyn Quarles