Marshall puts on a show at Pennfield, has the look of a contender
It’s still early, but Marshall is on top in the Interstate 8 Conference and looked every bit like a first-place team with its performance at Pennfield.
The Redhawks dominated the early going as Marshall rolled past Pennfield, 56-22, on Friday.
Marshall goes to 3-0 in the league, tied for first place.
"Kids are excited about how we are playing," Marshall coach Bill Dryer said. "Our goal every week, is to be 1-0 at the end of the week. We are putting kids in a position to be successful and we have been successful."
Here are five takeaways from the game:
Fast Start
It only took seven offensive snaps for Marshall to go up 21-0 and set the tone for this contest.
On the Redhawks’ second play from scrimmage, Marshall’s Luke Holbrook scored on a 27-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead.
On the first snap of its next possession, Marshall quarterback Austin Miller hit Jake Jacoby for a 64-yard touchdown pass and a 14-0 advantage.
The third time touching the ball, Marshall went on a quick four-play drive as Miller hit Jacoby for his second touchdown for 14 yards and a 21-0 lead with 5:19 still showing on the first quarter clock.
"They're a good football team, we knew how good they were and how young we are. We just got down by too many, too early," Pennfield coach Mike Clothier said.
Dialing Long Distance
Marshall was able to score from long distance throughout the contest.
Other big plays included a 55-yard touchdown pass from Miller to Jesse Saldana on what was a 4th-and-13.
The longest scoring strike came in the second quarter when Brady Koenig intercepted a pass and scored on a 90-yard return and an early 35-0 lead.
"Scoring early was big, getting some momentum was big," Dryer said. "Our offense is a high-power offense. We are generating a lot of offense from a lot of difference places."
Miller finished 10-for-11 passing for 174 yards and three touchdowns for the Redhawks with Saldana coming up with 107 yards on three catches and a touchdown and Jacoby adding 103 yards receiving and two scores. Vincent Hackworth added a touchdown catch.
Holbrook led Marshall with 93 yards rushing and a touchdown with Hogan McCleary finishing with 34 yards rushing and a score. Dimitri Egnatuk added a touchdown on the ground as well for the Redhawks.
Kordell Warnsley had seven tackles to lead the Marshall defense with Kooper Lewis adding six stops.
Wildcat Spark
Pennfield’s offense found a spark after getting down early by going away from the spread as the Panthers started to run out of the wildcat formation. With running back Kaidan Guthrie lining up in the quarterback spot, he began to take direct snaps and followed his offensive line for several first downs.
Pennfield’s lone touchdown in the first half also came out of the wildcat, with Brian Tomlinson taking the snap and finding a hole for a 20-yard touchdown run.
The Panthers' Guthrie scored twice in the second half on direct snap keepers.
While the formation is familiar to most as the wildcat, Pennfield has another name for it as a nod to the big fellas on the offensive line.
"I thought we were more physical once we went to our big fo's left and big fo's right. At that point, we started controlling the line of scrimmage," Clothier said. "We came up with that a couple of years ago, we when had that playoff team with all the big guys up front. We started running that (wildcat formation play) and we let the big guys name it. They wanted to call it big fo's."
Guthrie finished with 30 carries and had 167 yards rushing and the two scores with Tomlinson carrying the ball 11 times for 79 yards.
Trenten Dollaway led the Pennfield defense with seven tackles.
Looking ahead
Pennfield (0-5) will be looking to bounce back when it goes on the road in Week 5 to face a winless Coldwater team. Coldwater has played a challenging schedule, with games against three teams currently on top of the Interstate 8 Conference, including Marshall. The Redhawks get to find out if their fast start is for real as Marshall (3-1) will have first place on the line when it sees defending champ Hastings in Week 6.
What they said....
Marshall coach Bill Dryer: "The kids are excited about how we are playing now. Some of these kids went to the playoffs with us a few years ago. Last year we took it on the chin, but these kids know what it's like to win and they are excited about what we are doing right now."
Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @billbroderick.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Marshall puts on a show at Pennfield, has the look of a contender
