Marion Local’s Kamden Eifert (36) and his teammates celebrate with the MAC championship trophy. The Flyers have won eight straight titles, including the last five outright. (Press Pros Photos by Christy Wilker)
Marion Local couldn’t score an offensive touchdown, but Tim Goodwin’s found another way this season to extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 74 games.
Maria Stein, OH – Marion Local’s Andrew Schmackers caught the kickoff one step in front of the end zone. Had Coldwater’s Bryce Couchot’s kick been one yard more, Schmackers would have caught the football for a touchback.
And the nation’s longest high school football winning streak might have ended.
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But that one yard – those three feet, those 36 inches – was all the Flyers needed. And for the third time in five weeks, one yard, one play, one call added another memorable moment to Marion Local lore.
Schmackers returned that booming kickoff for a 99-yard touchdown late in the third quarter and Marion Local, the four-time defending state champions, walked off the field the way they have for 74 straight games – the winner. This time 7-6 for their third one-point victory in the past five weeks and eighth straight Midwest Athletic Conference title, including the last five outright.
“They always find a way,” Coldwater coach Chip Otten said.
Finding a way? Flyers senior Brayden Mescher paused for a moment when asked why his team is so hard to beat. But he knew why.
“I’d say tradition – we show up every day, we give it everything we have, we’ve shown it multiple times this year,” he said. “We haven’t been the best on offense, haven’t been the best on defense every game, but we all have showed we got guts. Coach [Tim] Goodwin always tells us, ‘I’ll never question your guys’ guts.’ And I think we proved it again tonight. Never gave up.”
The Marion defense gave little room to Coldwater running back Derek Dues.
Coldwater (6-4) had just taken a 3-0 lead when Couchot boomed a 40-yard field with 1:24 left in the third quarter. That was no reason for the Flyers to give up, only to look for a chance to make a play.
Marion (10-0) respected Couchot’s strong right leg. But they also knew if they could catch one inside the five-yard line they might have room to make a big play. They practiced for it this week. And when the opportunity came, all 11 were ready.
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Schmackers followed his blockers to the left sideline, turned the corner into open field, put a move on Couchot, and scored the most important touchdown of his life.
“I just relied on my teammates to block for me and they created the path for me to go all the way,” Schmackers said. “I was thinking I was going to outrun him – give him a little juke and then go.”
Brayden Mescher runs for 33-yard gain on a reverse that ultimately sealed the Flyers’ 74th straight win.
Mescher plays almost every down as a receiver, safety and on special teams. His job was just like the other nine guys in front of Schmackers: block somebody.
“I tried,” he said. “I don’t know how well I did, but I was down there when he got in the end zone.”
The Flyers will all tell you they did not win this game or any of the other close ones this season because of the streak.
“We don’t really ever talk about it,” Mescher said. “It’s not a distraction to us, but we never want to lose. We’re not worried about the streak. We’re just worried about winning that game that we’re playing.”
There was plenty to worry about because the struggle was real for the Flyers’ offense against a Coldwater defense that limited gashing runs and explosive pass plays. They turned the ball over on downs at the Coldwater 14 on their first possession. They reached the 23 in the second quarter only to be stopped for no gain on third-and-1, then lose a yard on fourth-and-1. Punter Thomas Winner saw a lot more action than usual. They gained only 195 yards.
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“I just told them we’re not that good, but we got guts,” Goodwin said. “We got guts, and we find different ways to do it.”
Couchot kicked a 27-yard field goal with just over seven minutes left to trim Marion’s lead to 7-6. Marion had 7:01 left to find a way to hold off the Cavaliers. Unable to sustain a drive all night, they found a way. And they knew they had to, lest Couchot get another chance with his ability to make a field goal from beyond 50 yards. Couchot’s kicking streaks stand at 12 straight field goals and 98 straight extra points.
Flyers quarterback Brennen Hess gains key yards on the final drive that ran out the clock on Coldwater.
“He’s one heck of a kicker,” Mescher said. “Even in pregame, he was draining them from deep, and we did not want him to get the ball back with us only up one. That would have been bad.”
So the Flyers killed the final 7:01 in 13 plays, including kneel downs on the final two after reaching the one. Quarterback Brennen Hess sneaked for a first down on fourth-and-1 at his own 32. Mescher caught a seven-yard pass on third-and-6 to reach the Coldwater 44.
Then Mescher made the second biggest play for the Flyers. He gained 33 yards to the 11 on a reverse. He said he could have scored, but he chose to go to the ground as the clock ticked under two minutes.
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“If we scored, we’d only been in an eight point-game, which is one score for them,” Mescher said. “So I thought, go down, run the clock out. I’ve seen it enough and thought about it. Team over me. We over me is everything.”
Coldwater tried to let running back Kamden Eifert score two plays later so it could get the ball back, but he was tripped up at the one. After Coldwater used its final timeout, the game ended with the Flyers in victory formation.
“As a leader I was in there just telling them take it play by play, hold onto ball,” Mescher said of the final drive. “If we get stopped, we get stopped, but keep holding onto the ball, falling forward, and we’re going to get first downs.”
Coldwater had some good drives going in the first half, but four false-start penalties and a holding penalty that called back a long run by quarterback Karsyn Homan were too much to overcome against Marion’s defense.
“The defense played great, offense played hard, but we shot ourselves with false starts, which is frustrating,” Otten said.
The Cavaliers gained 200 total yards with Homan leading the way with 62 on the ground and 106 through the air.
“Props to their offense, they were good,” Mescher said. “They drove down on us multiple times. We just made big stops. Never gave up. There’s our guts again.”
Coldwater quarterback Karsyn Homan accounted for most of his team’s offense against a stingy Marion Local defense.
Still, the Cavaliers’ up-and-down season has concluded on an up despite this loss. Last week the Cavaliers defeated Versailles 44-14. The Tigers were the first team this season to almost end Marion’s streak before falling 20-19. Now the defending Division VI state champs head into the Region 24 playoffs as the likely No. 4 seed with a first-round bye.
“We played great last week and we played a team that had won 73 in a row to one play,” Otten said. “We’ve been up and down each week, and they’ve responded each week.”
Marion will be the No. 1 seed in Division VII Region 28 with a first-round bye. They understand what is ahead, and Mescher is hoping for faster starts and less need to come from behind when the opponents get tough.
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“We love each other,” he said for why this team has a chance to make it five straight state titles. “Every single day, we show up, we work together. I think the biggest thing is our team work, our relationships, we build together. So I think hopefully we can.”
Goodwin doesn’t know for sure what the playoffs will hold. Streaks are made to be broken. But the one his program is on, though it’s bending a lot this season, still hasn’t broken. They have that tradition to lean that Mescher mentioned. In the streak, the Flyers have 38 shutouts and only nine games have been decided by eight points or fewer.
“We didn’t play great, but we played hard,” Goodwin said. “Obviously, stiffened up when we needed to, and obviously the offense when we needed that last drive, we did it.”
Just like the Flyers always do.
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