Marietta’s Zach Bartlett (23) carries the ball during a high school football game against Athens Friday at Don Drumm Stadium. Marietta won, 36-28, in overtime. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

MARIETTA — With their starting lineup missing several key players due to COVID issues, the Marietta Tigers overcame the odds and claimed a hard-fought, overtime victory over Athens Friday at Don Drumm Stadium.

Zach Bartlett finished with a whopping 41 carries, 209 yards and all five Marietta touchdowns in the 36-28 victory.

His 1-yard score in OT proved to be the game-winner as the Tigers forced and recovered a fumble on Athens’ only offensive play in the extra period.

“Zach played tremendous, but it starts up front, and Zach was the first person to credit the offensive line,” said MHS head coach Jason Schob. “Zach ran extremely hard. It was a total team effort.”

Marietta, which plays host to Richard Wright next Friday, improved to 1-2 while Athens dropped to 0-3.

The Tigers got on the board first behind the running of Bartlett. The senior back carried 12 times for 67 yards on Marietta’s second drive of the game, culminating in a 4-yard touchdown at the 8:41 mark in the second quarter. Bartlett finished the first half with 111 yards on 22 carries.

The Athens duo of quarterback Landon Wheatley and receiver Marcus Stevers combined to give the Bulldogs the lead. With 3:57 to go in the first half, Wheatley tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Stevers to tie the game at 7-all.

Marietta faced a third-and-19 on its ensuing possession, and quarterback Tyler Gerber’s screen pass was picked off by Luke Brandes. That set up a 23-yard TD strike from Wheatley to Stevers to make it 14-7, Athens, with 1:17 left in the second.

Marietta got the ball to open the second half, and behind the running of Gerber, pushed the ball into Athens’ red zone. Once again, Bartlett found paydird from 4 yards out to tie things up at 14-14 at the 7:20 mark in the third.

Athens answered on its next drive, converting a fourth-and-2 in Marietta territory before a 7-yard rush by Luke Brandes put the Bulldogs in the end zone for a 21-14 lead with 37 seconds left in the third.

Marietta drove the ball to Athens’ 22-yard line looking to tie the game, but Athens recovered a Marietta fumble. The Bulldogs fumbled it right back to the Tigers on their first play, and Marietta made them pay. Runs of 8, 13 and 4 yards by Bartlett got the Tigers back into the end zone to knot the score at 21-21.

Athens got a big kick return and quickly converted it into a 3-yard TD run by Wheatley to put the ‘Dogs back on top, 28-21, with 4:35 remaining in the game.

Marietta responded with a big kick return by Elyjah Lieras-Kelley, who then caught a 26-yard pass from Gerber to the Athens 38.

“That was a pretty critical play,” Schob said.

Marietta pushed the ball inside the 5 to the 2, where Bartlett powered his way into the end zone for the fourth time to once again tie the game with 51 seconds remaining.

Athens drove to the Marietta 32, but a fourth-down heave into the end zone fell incomplete to send the game into OT.

“I’m so proud of the kids,” Schob said. “We were down 10 starters, then lost two-way lineman D.J. Hendershot on the first possession to injury. The kids could’ve folded and quit, but they fought hard and found a way to win. It wasn’t perfect, but they were resilient. They deserve all the credit.”