Fast start boosts Marlow over Indians

The Comanche Indians came into the Marlow game with a heavy heart, but still played with a lot of heart in a 42-6 loss to Marlow last Friday night.

The game came just four days after former teammate Noah Presgrove was found dead along the roadside in Jefferson County early Monday morning.

“Honestly, we didn’t do that much preparation,” said Gary Robinson, head coach. “We found out an hour before practice that he had died, so I met with the team and there were a lot of crying and tears. Even I got choked up and couldn’t speak for a little while. We went ahead and watched film and did a little bit of game planning. We tried to practice, but after 45 minutes, so many were still crying, I just ended practice.”

Robinson said Tuesday was a little better but he had coaches out of town with junior high football so they were limited in what they could do.

“Wednesday was probably our best practice,” Robinson said. “We got 2 1/2 hours practice in. But preparation was very limited going into this game. There are things more important than football.”

Marlow scored four quick touchdowns in the opening quarter with their starters and then began substituting in players in the second quarter.

The teams played more evenly from that point on.

The Outlaws added a score in the second quarter and another in the fourth quarter to build a 42-0 lead.

Comanche would continue to fight, however. On the last play of the game, quarterback Colby Shannon hit receiver Evan Dodd from 19 yards out to prevent the shutout.

“That’s our number one goal every week - to play hard until the end, no matter the circumstances,” Robinson said. “We’re not going to hang our head. I think we truly exemplified that on our last drive. I purposely didn’t call the timeout. I wanted to see what we could do. If we could move a little faster and drive down the field to see if we could score and we scored with no time left on the clock.”

The quick start by the Outlaws didn’t deter them.

“We talk about these things at team meetings as far as what we are up against,” Robinson said. “We’re realistic with our players. We know that there are going to be some tough times. It’s not like we want to go out and start like that, but when it happens, I want to be able to know and to think my players are prepared for it because we’ve talked about those situations.”

There were some individual performances that stood out to the coach.

“Justin Mann plays right guard for us and his effort was just outstanding,” Robinson said. “He was going up against a kid that was way bigger like everyone else. They have some D-1 looking athletes. There were times when he would get pushed back, but he came off hard and was right up in that player’s grill. Every play he was given full effort.”

On defense, Robinson liked the way Dodd played.

“He did an outstanding job playing free safety,” Robinson said. “He made a lot of tackles and when they broke through the front line he was coming up like a bullet through the front line.”

Marlow doubled up Comanche statistically with 338 yards of total offense to Comanche’s 169.

Colby Shannon was 8-of-11 passing for 60 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Evan Dodd had two catches for 17 yards and a score. Cooper Dobbins had three catches for 18 yards, Hollister Pollock had one catch for 16 yards, Ayden Reed had one catch for seven yards and Ty Lane had one catch for two yards.

Pollock was the leading rusher with 54 yards on 18 carries. Shannon had five carries for 53 yards, Kanon Clift had two carries for two yards and Ty Lane had one carry for no yards.

An area that saw great improvement for the Indians was in penalties. A week after getting 110 yards in penalties, the Indians were penalized just 10 yards against Marlow.

This week

The Indians (0-2) will make the second of their third straight road trips when they travel to Plainview (1-1) this Friday to take on another tribe of Indians.

Plainview, another member of the same Class 3A district as Marlow opened its season with a 48-7 win over Pilot Point, Texas. Last week, they fell to Class 4A Newcastle, 35-21.

Robinson has been impressed with what he has seen of his opponent.

“We’ve watched a lot of film on them and they they’re way, way aggressive,” Robinson said. “They’re really big and they’re going to come up and hit you. I couldn’t believe how they would come up and just rip the ball out of (their opponent’s) hands and taking it for a touchdown. They’re just as good if not better than Marlow, honestly.”