No. 1 ML too much for Indians (10/06/07)

MARIA STEIN, Ohio - The Indians had a defensive stop. But a penalty erased it, and they couldn't duplicate the effort the rest of the first half.

Marion Local, the top-ranked high school football team in Division V, turned its second chance into the first touchdown of the game. Then the Flyers scored four more times in the second quarter en route to a 42-10 victory over Fort Recovery.

The Indians (4-3, 3-3 Midwest Athletic Conference) picked up one first down on the opening drive of the game before being forced to punt. They turned around and limited Marion Local to just six yards on its first three plays to set up a punting situation. However, the Tribe was called for roughing the kicker, which resulted in a Flyer first down.

Marion Local (7-0, 6-0 MAC) found its groove from there, as a 27-yard pass from Chris Stucke to Jason Wolters down the right side set up a 17-yard touchdown run by Ben Schaefer.

Fort Recovery tied the game on a 3-yard TD pass from Greg Kahlig to Toby Metzger, but it just could not keep up with the Flyers. After Schaefer scored again on a 14-yard run, the Indians marched back down the field to the 1-yard line only to be called for a false start on fourth-and-goal. They settled for a Mark Mattraw 23-yard field goal, and Schaefer scored again with a 3-yard run at the 3:10 mark of the second quarter.

Another Fort Recovery drive stalled, and a short punt set Marion Local up with great field position. Just two plays later Stucke swept 14 yards around the right side untouched to make it 28-10.

The Indians tried for some late heroics, but instead a sack of Kahlig resulted in a fumble recovered by Marion Local. The Flyers cashed in yet again when Stucke hit Alex Moeller with a 13-yard TD pass to make it 35-10 at the half.

The only touchdown of the second half came on a 4-yard pass from Stucke to Marcus Moeller.

The 32-point margin was actually just the fourth-worst beating handed out by Marion Local this year. It has topped Minster 57-0, Elida 51-0 and Versailles 56-13.

Schaefer ran 14 times for 97 yards, an averaged of nearly seven yards per carry. Stucke completed eight of his 12 pass attempts for 154 yards, with three of those going to Wolters for 106 yards.

A week after setting school passing records, Kahlig had another solid game as he finished 16-of-27 for 189 yards. Frank Thien caught four balls for 45 yards, Wes Kahlig had three receptions for 65 yards and Metzger, Michael Trobridge and Ben Tobe added three catches apiece. Matt Braun carried the ball 15 times for 79 yards.[[In-content Ad]]