Only 29 seconds remained Saturday afternoon when Marshall’s Lions finally realized their 11-game high school football winning streak had come to an end.
Taylor Duncan’s fourth-down pass had fallen incomplete, visiting Maroa-Forsyth had the ball — and a 17-point lead — and the Lions’ offensive unit trooped dejectedly off the field.
At which point, the red-clad fans that filled the Marshall bleachers — including the temporary ones that rounded the corners at both end zones — and lined the fences where there were no bleachers rose en masse, saluting their heroes for a job well done.
“This is a great thing for the community too,” said senior defensive end Dalton Sanders when asked about the Lions’ season later. “We’ve had tons of support in both sports [Sanders is one of several football players who also reached the Illinois Final Four in basketball eight months ago], and it’s an awesome ride.
“You come off the field and you’re getting congratulations from people you don’t know, people you’ve never seen before,” Sanders continued. “You never think about that — but it feels good.”
“It’s been a blast,” added senior tight end Dustin Morey. “We went as far [in football] as the ‘79 team. [The season has] been fun — it seems short, though.”
Morey is another player who experienced both Final Fours.
“It’s awesome, unbelievable,” he said. “I’ve heard we’re the first class to do that … but we had a lot of help from the seniors in basketball [last spring], and the sophomores really stepped up this year [in football].”
“Football-wise, this has been the greatest all-around team I’ve ever been a part of,” said Duncan. “We went out and fought hard, but Maroa is a good team and they came out on top at the end.
“I’m really proud to be part of this team, such a hard-working team,” Duncan continued. “I can’t say enough about them.”
The Lions lost their first game of the season and, as all but eight Illinois playoff teams do, their last one. Between those games, however, they were unbeaten for almost three full months.
“We bounced back against Mahomet[-Seymour, a Class 4A playoff team the Lions beat on the road in the second game of the year] and we played well since then,” said senior tackle Tyler Bishop. “You always want to believe you can [win all the rest of the games], but looking at it now it’s hard to believe we won every game [since the opener].”
Although Marshall trailed 17-0 at halftime against “by far the most talented team we’ve seen,” coach Todd Evers said later, the Lions came back in the third quarter and nearly pulled off a win.
Although Marshall had been seeded higher than the Trojans, Maroa-Forsyth was the top-ranked Class 2A team in the preseason poll. The Trojans came in at 10-2 — the most losses the team had experienced in one season since 2004, coach Josh Jostes noted after the game.
“We played a great Marshall team and a great quarterback,” Jostes said after the game. “[The Lions] kind of took momentum back in the second half … and their kids did a great job containing [all-state fullback Dalton Coventry, held to 19 yards rushing until the game’s final drive].”
An interception return for a touchdown blunted Marshall’s momentum somewhat. The Trojans turned Marshall’s three turnovers into 17 points, in fact.
“We just kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” Morey said. “[The Trojans] made mistakes, but we made bigger ones.”
While sad that their own high school football careers are over, the four seniors will be happy to continue as fans of the next few Marshall teams.
“I’ve made friends I’ll never lose,” said Bishop, “but [the Lions] are going to be real good next year. I expect the same the thing out of them [that we accomplished].”
“It was an awesome experience,” said Sanders. “Working with a lot of younger guys is a great thing for a senior.”
The hero of the playoff win over Casey a week earlier, Sanders said, “I’ve improved a lot from last year … and I see Trey Trudeau [a junior who played the opposite defensive end for this year’s Lions], being the same way I was.”
But there are still some things those four want to accomplish too. They’ll report Monday afternoon for basketball practice.
“We want to see if we can go back to Peoria [for the Final Four] again,” Morey concluded.
• Trojan power — I’ve covered two games involving Maroa-Forsyth, and if the Trojans go on to win their second state championship next week — as they did in 2006, after winning the Casey game that I covered — they might be asking me to move to the Decatur area to cover them more often.
Each time I’ve seen them they’ve had a truly awesome player — quarterback Luke Hockaday (who is now at Millikin, I was told) three years ago and linebacker/fullback Dalton Coventry this season. The Lions did a great job of gang-tackling Coventry — who looks a lot bigger than his listed weight of 218 — for three quarters, but his blitzing pretty much shut down the Marshall passing game in the first half.
• Not a fashion statement — One of the first things I noticed after Tom Reck and I arrived at Marshall on Saturday was that the Marshall student managers were all wearing heavy, knee-high boots.
I found out why before long.
Walking the sidelines was a little bit of a challenge. Crossing the field after the game to talk to Jostes revealed that the middle of the field was ankle-deep muck. How the players were able to pick up their feet at all, let alone run, was a mystery to me. It made Duncan’s 12-yard, slow-motion, juke-every-defender-on-the-field touchdown run even more impressive.
To alter an old expression, it was not to windy to haul rocks — but it was definitely too wet to plow.
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. for comments or news items at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
Amey Takes Aim
Amey Takes Aim: Mashall’s pride was roaring during unforgettable run
- Amey Takes Aim
-
-
Amey Takes Aim: NHL playoffs to put TVs to good use
If Jenny had known, she probably wouldn’t have bought that TV.
But four or five years ago, my Fathers Day present — for those unfamiliar with Amey family traditions, the Fathers Day one is “let’s get something we all really want and pretend it’s a gift for Dad” — was a 42-inch Vizio. It’s been used even more than the cell phone I never would have bought for myself, or the TomTom that disappeared since Jenny’s smartphone arrived.
And it came with high-def.
I’m not going to insult you by telling you how great high-def is, because to do so would be to imply that you are even farther behind the technological curve than I am. I’m guessing, however, that not all of you have yet discovered what it does for hockey. -
Amey Takes Aim: Can’t bottle the joy of Amey vacations
The first bad sign was the Gatorade bottle.
In the Bataan-Death-March drive to Orlando that got the Amey family spring break vacation off to a bad start, seeing it between lanes of I-24 — as we zipped along at a 100-miles-in-five-hours clip — filled with an ominous yellow liquid was a little bit scary. And although we didn't stop to check for sure, I'm fairly certain I knew about its contents.
And the person stuck in the same traffic jam with us, the one with the existential license plate YMIHR4, couldn’t have asked a more pertinent question.
But, after seeing a lot more of Oak Grove, Ky., than we’d planned, and after enduring more traffic slowdowns in Nashville, we were on our way. Even some rain in the dark in the Smokies didn’t slow us down much, so you would think our first-day troubles were over.
You would be wrong. -
ANDY AMEY: Farewell to basketball
I believe you’ve heard me say before — just about a year ago, perhaps — that a boys high school basketball season that ends with the Tribune-Star in Bankers Life Fieldhouse can’t be considered a bad one, which is why we have a little celebrating to do thanks to the Linton Miners.
Lover of irony that I am, I’ve also got to point out that this season was another branch sprouting from the Wabash Valley’s most legendary coaching tree, that of Joe Hart.
Joe never got much credit for his work at Dugger, but he took Brody Boyd, Clark Golish and the Bulldogs to a state championship game in 2000, and since then three of his former players — Joe Pigg, Clint Swan and now Joey Hart, his son — also have coached teams in the final game of the season.
Joe probably wishes he could take credit for Doc Nash, another down-home type who gave a banjo lesson earlier Saturday in leading Borden past a bigger, more athletic Triton team (banjo lesson is a Howard Sharpism, for you younger readers), but his lineage is still the best I can think of around here. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: Maroons, Rox final a true Classic
I don’t make predictions nearly as often as I used to, but I had one several months ago that was proven correct last week.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Nitpicking aside, West Vigo Hall of Fame selections spot on
I can’t imagine a better first class of inductees into the West Vigo High School Athletics Hall of Fame than the one that was feted Saturday night in the Jim Mann Green Dome.
-
Tough bunch of people
I’m getting my warm clothes ready for a trip to Linton this week, and if a few thrills from the Miners, Casey or North Vermillion happen the next couple of weeks, I hope I get to see them.
But high school football is over in Vigo County for the season — as coach Chris Barrett of Terre Haute North said, prematurely — and I’m sadder to see it go than usual.
Walking the sidelines and doing midweek or postgame interviews enables me to meet quite a few of the guys whose names you are about to read, and haven’t been more impressed than I was this fall. What outstanding groups of young men. What a tough, tough bunch of people.
Many know that one of my favorite athletic adjectives appeared consecutively in the previous sentence. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: A weekend to remember with ISU’s ’72 football team
They’re all still pretty hale and hearty, the boys of the fall of 1972 who returned to campus over the weekend to honor their former football coach.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: ISU reunion raises more questions than answers
One of the wrestlers I used to hang out with occasionally claimed to be a pretty good second-story man — although he may have just been talking, since I never saw any of the goods — and it was with him in mind that I was able to get access to the Indiana State Wrestling Alumni Reunion late Saturday night.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Deciding not to ‘vacate’ during ‘vacation’ – & other ventures
Flaunting the law, setting a bad example for the kids in other ways, grooming and acquiring dogs … not a typical Amey family vacation, but an appreciated one just the same.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Huntsville’s Stars, Havoc take back seat to GGS
The second-best thing about the Amey family’s spring-break trip to Huntsville, Ala., is that we left a lot of things on the table to do the next time we’re down there.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Rox well represented on Amey teams
If having the state finals in town makes it a successful girls high school basketball season, then certainly having a team to follow at the state finals makes it a very successful boys high school basketball season . . .
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: A feeling of pride, not disappointment, comes from watching Rox play
It’s not going to come as a startling admission that I — once the rest of the local opposition has been eliminated from consideration — am an unabashed fan of whatever team the Wabash Valley sends onward in postseason high school sports competition.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: This private school plays basketball the right way
Any girls high school basketball season that ends with state championship games in Hulman Center is a pretty good one — even though I wished I’d seen Riverton Parke and Seeger knock off a couple of private schools the week before to even the public school-private school battle a little bit.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Even 2 of state’s best once had doubts
Look at them now.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Getting ready for the dance
Terre Haute North got the good news Sunday night — or did it?
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Harrowing path for state hopefuls
The bad news is that the winner of Class 4A Sectional 13 in boys basketball heads northeast instead of southeast for regional play in March — to Hinkle Fieldhouse instead of Seymour as a result of Indiana High School Athletic Association’s changes.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: A superior all-star arrangement
I don’t work on Wednesdays, so I wasn’t able to attend the first Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association draft last week to set up the annual all-star game that will be June 23 this year.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: The biggest & baddest of a holiday classic
There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Taking note of ISU’s latest football win
The biggest difference I’ve noticed, as I transition from the high school football beat to quasi-official status as the Indiana State football beat writer for a few weeks, is the length of the games.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: IHSAA playoff draw not as bad as it could have been
First reaction to the Indiana sectional football pairings drawn late Sunday by the Indiana High School Athletic Association? It could have been a lot worse.
-
ANDY AMEY: Between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & a hard place
Just in case any of you noticed — with some anticipation — the recent lack of my bylines, I can tell you that your wish (and mine) did come true. It was vacation week for the Amey family.
-
Amey Takes Aim: UFC fighter’s bloodines traced back to ISU brothers
As a mild-mannered reporter from a great metropolitan newspaper — or thereabouts — I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the burgeoning mixed martial arts scene.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Predators’ win is music to new fan’s ears
For many, many years, the number of live games televised on WGN has been cited as perhaps the main reason for the popularity of the Chicago Cubs (it’s got to be something besides masochism, right?).
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: You’ll be having a good ol’ time on vacation with the Ameys
When one of the first people you meet is Tammy Wynette’s stepdaughter, when you’ve stepped on the feet of people you haven’t met while trying to navigate Ernest Tubbs’ old Silver Eagle tour bus, and when the activities director of your resort is, well, Elvis, you might be vacationing in Nashville.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: The Annual All-Amey basketball teams close out the prep season
The most encouraging boys high school basketball event I’ve attended so far in 2011 has been the Lafayette Semistate a couple of weeks ago.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Family remembers Cheryl Weatherman as caring grandmother
As far as Riley and Keely Davis are concerned, Cheryl Weatherman was simply their grandmother, and a pretty darn good one at that.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Honor to see Turkey Run girls close out memorable career
I don’t know if anyone in this part of the state could actually say they enjoy going to Fort Wayne and back, but I was glad to see the Turkey Run Warriors play one last time during the girls basketball state finals Saturday.
-
So many matches, so many favorites
Go ahead, ask me anything about the 224 wrestlers who competed last week at the Indiana state finals — or at least about the 112 wrestlers who survived Saturday’s first round.
-
ANDY TAKES AIM: A sportwriters’s lament: Oh, the games we missed
I was already tired of winter by the time that first bitterly cold snap passed through in mid-December, so it’s safe to say the season hasn’t grown on me.
-
AMEY TAKES AIM: Time of the season for teams to tough it out
In the last month or so I figure I’ve seen at least four boys high school basketball teams with legitimate state-championship dreams as the season heads into its dog days.
- More Amey Takes Aim Headlines
-
Amey Takes Aim: NHL playoffs to put TVs to good use
Raw Video: Washington State Bridge Collapse
Officials: Truck Hit Bridge Before Collapse
Sheriff: No Sign Killing of 2 Kids Was Planned
Bridge Collapse Survivor: 'Rough Day'
Boy Scouts Approve Plan to Accept Gay Boys
First Person: Mom Discusses Famous Tornado Photo
Raw: Jurors Deadlock on Jodi Arias Penalty
Raw: Utah Teen Arrested in Death of His Brothers
Boy Scouts Decision "First Step" Say Activists
Obama Defends Drone Strikes, With Limits
Jersey Shore Open for Business
Closer Look at Okla. School Where Children Died
Raw: Scuffles in London After Hacking Death
Two Suspects in Murder Known to London Police
Britain Attack Believed Linked to Radical Islam
Johnson: Don't Blame Islam or UK Policy
Today in History May 24
Boy Scouts Mom Supports Gay Inclusiveness
SeaWorld: Penguins Are Coolest Thing in Florida
Obama Renews Call to Close Gitmo
AK-47-wielding thug may be the most bumbling crook ever
Oklahoma Survivors, Heroes Survey Damage
Trout's cycle a boost for Angels
Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado
Kim Kardashian Flaunts Pregnant Bikini Body in Greece
NBA star pledges $1M to help tornado recovery
Shakira's Shocking Talent
Morgan Freeman falls asleep on air
GRAPHIC: Blood-Soaked Machete Killer Caught on Tape
Elin Nordegren Furious With Lindsey Vonn For Parading Kids in Public
Camera Captures Climber As He Loses Grip And Falls
Helen Mirren Meets with Dying Boy in Queen Elizabeth's Place
Crowd Chants '¡Si, Se Puede!' After Passage of Immigration Bill
DWTS Crowns a Winner
Police Ram House to End Hostage Standoff
Demi Moore a Rocks Bikini at Harry Morton's Family House
Anthony Weiner: I'm running for New York City mayor
Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal
The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
