Marion Center holds second quarter lead to win over Purchase Line

Tagged under: District 6, News

Avery Falisec | September 20, 2020

The Purchase Line Red Dragons prepare to take the field for their home opener against the Marion Center Stingers (above).

The perfect Friday night football weather only added to the nail-biting game between the Marion Center Stingers and the Purchase Line Red Dragons. With a final score or 28-20, the win going to the Stingers, Purchase Line is still looking for their first victory of the season.

However, the score does not tell the whole story.

On the opening kickoff, senior linebacker Clayton Patrick tackled Marion Center’s returner at the 21-yard line of the Stingers’. Soon after, Marion Center’s pass game broke through Purchase Line’s secondary for a touchdown, but this was called back due to an illegal block. A few plays later, the Stingers were forced to a punt.

Purchase Line had a chance to score, due to the strong wall that the Dragons put up. The Dragons drove down the field, and capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown from junior quarterback Jayce Brooks, making the score 6-0, after a failed conversion attempt.

Purchase Line’s strong defense held for the rest of the quarter, allowing Purchase Line to keep the lead of 6-0.

On the next series, the Dragons’ offense was driving down the field, but were stopped short on fourth and four. Marion Center came in quick with a 74-yard touchdown from Justin Peterson, with only five minutes left in the half.

The Stingers proceeded to take an even bigger lead, after another touchdown was scored by Peterson, this time of 48 yards, both of them on passes from junior quarterback Ty Ryen. With the Dragons eight points behind, they had to stop things from getting out of control.

That is exactly what happened next.

Syster took a direct snap out of the wildcat and dropped back to pass. He launched a bomb to junior wide receiver Mello Sanchez for an 81-yard touchdown.

Even despite this big play, Purchase Line’s defense fell short once again, when Peterson caught a pass from Ryen in the endzone with only three seconds left in the half, putting Marion Center up even further, 21-12, to end the half.

Marion Center Head Coach Adam Rising said, “The score going in before halftime was huge. We got the ball back with 1:06 to work with and had 2 timeouts. I told our guys we had plenty of time to score. We had a few decent runs and passes to put us into a good position. I told our kicker to be ready in case we would go for a field goal. Fortunately, our line did an excellent job giving Ryen time to hook up with Peterson in the back of the endzone.”

The second half began with a battle of defense.

Late in the third quarter, Peterson struck again, with a 9-yard touchdown. This left the Dragons with a dire need to score. With five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Syster made it 25 yards to the endzone on a right sideline run, and then proceeded to get the conversion.

Purchase Line then attempted an onside kick, but after a scrum of players were pulled apart, Marion Center came up with the ball. The Red Dragon defense held on the next series, and suddenly, Purchase Line was on offense.

With minutes left, the Dragons needed to get down the field, score, and get the two-point conversion to tie the game, with the possibility of going into overtime. This hope was soon diminished when they ran wildcat, once again, but this time it was intercepted by the Stingers. This allowed the Stingers to take a knee and end the game with a victory, 28-20.

Brooks said, “There is a lot of talent and potential on our team. We just need to learn how to put it all together and use it in the right ways.

Purchase Line Head Coach Matthew Falisec said, “As a team we need to find a way to win. We have played two good teams and we have been competitive for 48 minutes. Now we just need to find a way to finish.”

The Red Dragons look to do just that against the Penns Manor Comets next Friday, while the 2-0 Stingers take on the undefeated Homer Center Wildcats.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews