Marion stops Graham 25-12 in Region IV, Division 3 semifinals

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – A good inside-outside game. That’s usually the hallmark of a good basketball team.

Friday night, it was the bread and butter of a pretty good football team.

Thomas Lyon and Jordan Burrows each ran for more than 100 yards as Marion stopped Graham 25-12 in the Region IV, Division 3 semifinals at Mitchell Stadium.

The win sends the Scarlet Hurricanes (7-4) to Richlands next week to play in their first Region IV title game since 2001.

Lyon did most of his damage inside the tackles in the first half.

The senior fullback sparked Marion with a 65-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game. A fumble on the subsequent kickoff by Graham (6-5) set up a 25-yard TD pass from Cody Patterson that capped a 15-point outburst by the Hurricane in the game’s first 3:56.

"Tommy made a good run early," Marion coach Steve Wright said. "That was a big play. It got us excited and we played well. We got some breaks and took advantage of them and we feel blessed to come out with a win."

Lyon got 77 of his 117 yards before halftime. Burrows ran for 88 yards and a touchdown in the second half, and finished with an even 100 yards on 19 carries, mostly on sweeps.

"We just wanted to get them back for that first loss," said Burrows, whose club fell at 13-8 at Graham in September. "They were focusing in on Tommy outside and it just opened it up a little bit for me. I’ve got to thank my blockers, they did a great job."

Mistakes set up the final four of five first-half scores, including the end of the half, when Marion took an 18-12 lead on the final play. An illegal forward pass on a fourth down play by Graham led to a 33-yard field goal by Marion’s Jason Mendez as time expired in the second period.

Graham had cut it’s deficit to 15-12 earlier in the quarter. A high snap and a short punt by the Scarlet Hurricanes gave the G-Men good field position, and that eventually led to an 18-yard TD pass from David Marrs to Torren Byrd with 24 seconds left in the first period. An interception and 28-yard return by J.K. Goins set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Ronnie Scott with 3:41 left in the half.

The G-Men, however, failed to sustain a long scoring drive in either half.

"We were out of sync all night long," Graham coach Doug Marrs said. "We battled back. We just didn’t make the plays when we had to make the plays.

"We jumped offsides a couple of times, and you can’t make those types of mistakes in a playoff game. The better team tonight won."

Graham, which committed nine penalties for 62 yards in the first half and had 13 penalites for 77 yards overall, failed to pick a first down in the second until inside the five minute mark of the fourth quarter.

"I thought our defensive series coming out at halftime was huge," Wright said. "If they come down and [scored], it’s a different ballgame."

Graham bottled up Lyon inside in the second half, but it came at a price. Burrows keyed two Marion possessions, one that established field position, and another that led to a crucial 8-yard touchdown run by the underrated senior with 10:52 remaining. It turned out to be the only score of the second half.

"We didn’t take [Lyon] away soon enough," Marrs said. "But they’ve got a couple of awful good backs. Of course, it hurt losing Jonathan [Brewster] to injury."

Scott finished with 60 yards on 14 carries to lead the G-Men.

Marion 15 3 0 7-25

Graham 6 6 0 0-12

Scoring summary

M-Lyon 65 run (Medndez kick)

M-Croson 25 pass from Patterson (Lyon run)

G-Byrd 18 pass from Marrs (run failed) G-Scott 2 run (run failed)

M-Mendez 33 FG

M-Burrows 8 run (Mendez kick)

Team Stats

First Downs: M 10, G 7; Rushes-Yards: M 49-243, G 37-89; Passing Yards: M 36, G 35; Comp-Att-Int: M 2-5-1, G 3-9-1; Fumbles-Lost: M 2-2, G 2-1; Penalties-Yards: M 5-30, G 13-77; Punts-Average: M 2-29.5, G 4-28.