MARIA STEIN – The Tri-Village football team met up with Marion Local in the 2nd round of the OHSAA DVII Region 28 football playoff game. Although the Patriots fell 56-14 to the Flyers it was a welcomed opportunity to see and play the best and will benefit the program in the future.
Marion Local came in riding a 59-game winning streak the longest streak in Ohio football history and currently the longest in the nation as they rolled to their 60th straight victory.
The Flyers rolled through the regular season scoring 50+ points per game and yielded just 22 points all season long with wins again Coldwater, Minster, Anna, St. Henry and wins against DIII Franklin and Indiana’s defending DII State Champion Linton-Stockton.
The Patriots knew it was going to be a challenge as the Flyers rolled out to a 21-0 lead in the 1st quarter.
Their offense continued to roll in the 2nd quarter three more scores going up 42-0 before the Patriots finally responded.
Tri-Village began to have success opening up their offense and using a hurry up junior quarterback Trey Sagester navigated the team down field spreading the ball around.
Facing a 4th down and 5 with the ball at the 13-yard line and 6 seconds left in the first half, Sagester rolled left with a Marion Local blitz in hot pursuit. Sagester was able to get rid of the ball right before taking a hit and senior Lane Bierly hauled in the toss to get the Patriots on the score board trailing 42-6 at the half.
“Once our kids settled down and realized we could play with them, we competed. That’s what we wanted to do. Super proud of our guys. Those guys (Marion Local) have more state titles than we have years playing football,” Tri-Village coach Matthew Hopkins said.
It would be a running clock to start the second half and Marion Local would add a couple more scores, but the Patriots would strike one more time in the 4th quarter this time Sagester connected with Griffin Richards on a 5-yard pass and added a two-point conversion to make the score 56-14.
The Patriots were on the move one more time looking to add another score … but time ran out.
Trey Sagester was 33-for-48 throwing for 230 yards and 2 TD in the game and Griffin Richards was the leading receiver with 10 grabs for 85-yards and a TD. Teddy Miller had 7 catches for 43 yards, Noah Finkbine 7 catches for 30 yards and Lane Bierly had 4 catches for 47 yards including the 1 TD.
Sometimes you have to tip your hat to the better team and there is no shame in doing that. Marion clearly looks like they are destined to win their 4th state championship in a row and will face off against another WOAC opponent Ansonia this Friday at Lima Spartan stadium.
Given that Marion had yielded just 22 points the Patriots can build off the fact they were able to score 14 points and gain valuable experience playing a next level opponent.
Coach Hopkins noted that his team got better week by week after graduating a strong class last year guys were gaining experience as the season went along and fortunately they will have good nucleus of those guys coming back next year.
Tri-Village will graduate 6 seniors Lane Bierly, Jaden Sears, Zeke Hopkins, Mason Weathington, Kaeden Lipps and Grant Howell.
The Patriots complete their season with a 9-3 overall record, 7-2 and 3rd in the WOAC.
