By Tom Reck
Marshall, Ill. — Marshall High School’s basketball team made school history last season by not losing a game in the regular season and advancing to the Final Four, the state finals, placing third.
Taylor Duncan, Dustin Morey, Tyler Bishop, Dalton Sanders and Austin Wetnight all were members of that team and will be the first five Marshall athletes to compete in two Final Four games in their prep career. They will be competing in the school’s second Final Four game in the 2A football playoffs Saturday against Maroa-Forsyth.
Duncan has been on the varsity four years and started for three seasons. He leads the team in scoring with 32 touchdowns, in passing with 1,230 yards and is second in rushing with 902 yards.
He also does the punting for the 11-1 Lions, plays safety on defense and has been in on 33 tackles with three pass interceptions.
“We knew we had a good team going into the season and just had to go out and play well,” he says of the team.
He said losing to Casey in the season opener motivated the team as the Lions came back to defeat Class 4A Mahomet-Seymour in the next contest.
“We’ve kept it rolling ever since,” he said.
As a senior, he says he has tried to lead by example and be more vocal this year. “We’ve pretty much run the same type of offense my four years, adding some wrinkles here and there,” he said.
He said the keys to Saturday’s game will be the same as they have been all year: practice hard and execute.
Sanders is in his second year as a starter at defensive end and is second in tackles with 16. He has tied Eric White for the school record in sacks with 16.
Sanders also has three pass breakups and a fumble recovery and had the big play of the game last week, blocking the potential extra-point attempt by Casey in overtime. It sealed victory for the Lions.
“We have high expectations each season and expect to get into the playoffs. And we always want to go deeper. We’re in the Final Four now and go into it the same as any other game, expecting to win,” he says of his senior season.
He said assistant coach Garry Norton got him going “in the right direction” his first two years on the team.
Like Duncan, he says beating Mahomet-Seymour was a big game for the Lions. And he had a couple of his sacks in that one.
He says wins are more important than any record but says he would like to get another sack or two Saturday if it helped the team win and move on to the finals.
Bishop is second in total tackles with 95 and has five sacks.
Morey has caught 19 passes for 330 yards and three touchdowns while Wetnight has caught 18 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns.
