Marietta, Glenville pick up wins
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MARIETTA — After missing a tackle on Heidelberg's longest play of the game Saturday at Don Drumm Stadium, Marietta cornerback Jaelon Querio-Gordon was hoping the Student Princes would throw the ball his way again.
Heidelberg quarterback Gavin Reineke had just completed a 27-yard screen pass to Cole Poorman, who slipped away from Quiero-Gordon to get the Student Princes into Pioneer territory. The very next play, Reineke went right back to Poorman. This time, though, as the ball hit Poorman's hands, Queiro-Gordon was there to rip it away, and he took it 55 yards to the house for a pick-six.
That play was a perfect encapsulation of what was another dominant performance by Marietta, which claimed a 37-14 homecoming victory. The Pioneers improved to 5-2 overall and 4-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
"I had to make up for the last play," said Quiero-Gordon, who now has a team-high three interceptions this season. "I missed a tackle. I was like, 'Hey, let me go get one.' The ball was in my hands when he was falling down. I said, 'Gotta go score.'"
Marietta forced five turnovers on the day, including four on interceptions, and they set the tone early.
Heidelberg's opening drive ended with an interception by Harley Hopkins, which set up Derek Cline's 28-yard field goal to give Marietta 3-0 lead.
The Pioneers built a 24-0 by halftime thanks to three touchdown passes by Connor Vierstra — 23 yards to John Sierputowski, 2 yards to Derek Witsberger and 5 yards to Dre Baldwin.
"We started off quick," said Vierstra, who finished 21 for 27 passing for 303 yards. "Defense was clicking on all aspects. So was offense. We played great in the first half. Trickled down in the second half, but we managed to keep it alive and win the game in the end."
Marietta picked up right where it left off to start the second half thanks to Quiero-Gordon's big play.
"We came out and executed," Quiero-Gordon said. "Credit to Heidelberg's offense. They gave us some problems in the second half, but overall defensively, we stepped up."
Defensively, O.C. Nurse also had a pick while Chance Knight, Mahleek Melton and Jake Visnic all had sacks for MC, which finally was scored upon at the 10:25 mark in the third quarter when Montavious Yearby ran in from 12 yards out to cut it to 30-7.
Yearby, one of the OAC's top backs, went for 71 yards on 17 carries. Reineke went 13 for 22 passing for 136 yards and threw four picks. Backup Lance Rickle went 7 for 11 for 86 yards and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Drdul late in the game.
After Yearby's score, the Student Princes got a three-and-out to force Marietta into its first punt of the game. But just when Heidelberg thought it had some momentum, the punt was dropped and recovered by Marietta's Anthony Sabatino.
Both offenses traded one-play drives that resulted in turnovers, as Vierstra was strip-sacked by Key Cunningham before Reineke's tipped pass was intercepted by Blade Barclay.
In the fourth quarter, Sierputowski caught his second touchdown of the game, an 18-yarder on Vierstra's fourth TD pass to make it a 30-point game.
MC junior Dawson Snyder, one of the league's best wideouts, missed the game due to an injury. Marietta had other guys step up in his absence, as Baldwin was Vierstra's top target with 96 yards on seven catches while Sierputowski added 79 yards on six receptions.
"When it comes to receivers, we have a very, very deep receiver core," Vierstra said. "It sucks not to have Dawson, but it allows other people to go out there and make plays, too. Dre had a great game today. He was balling out."
Marietta won despite only netting 17 rushing yards on the day. An efficient passing attack and a ball-hungry defense made up for it.
"Our team played hard. Just got to keep going 1-0 each and every week," Quiero-Gordon said.
"Extremely proud. We're trying to build a culture here. Trying to get the program to flip over into a new era, and that's exactly what we're doing."
Marietta has made it through the toughest part of its schedule and sits in third place in the conference. Every week is difficult in the OAC -- Marietta still has visits to Ohio Northern and Capital on the schedule before wrapping up the regular season at home with Muskingum -- but if the Pioneers can win out, they would have their first eight-win season since 1995.
"We have a chance to tie the best record in school history," Vierstra said. "We're taking it one game at a time. We're taking every game seriously every week. It doesn't matter who we play."
Head coach Andy Waddle gave his thoughts on the contest.
"Heidelberg is a good team and they have a good defense. It was tough sledding in the run game today," he said. "Connor (Vierstra) had a fairly high completion percentage and threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns and Bryce (Agnew) got some hard yards, but we still had some mistakes.
"Defensively, we were able to come up with five turnovers and a score. We kept pressure on their quarterback. I thought the defense did a good job. Harley (Hopkins) had a big interception early in the game and Jaelon (Quiero-Gordon) had the interception and score."
Glenville State 44, Concord 7
GLENVILLE -- Glenville State put on a dominant display against Concord Saturday en route to a 44-7 victory at Sue Morris Stadium.
The Pioneers (4-3) jumped out to a 23-0 halftime lead as they limited the Mountain Lions (0-8) to nine total yards and zero first downs in the first half. Concord was 0 for 5 on third downs and had the ball for just 7 minutes, 54 seconds of game clock in the opening two quarters.
Zavionne Wood carried 20 times for 155 yards and a touchdown. Anthony Garrett was 21 for 28 passing for 209 yards and two touchdowns -- 27 yards to Zion Barnette and 6 yards to Orion Bonner. Saeed Galloway had a pair of rushing touchdowns while Alfred Menjor found the end zone once. Glenville, which visits UNC Pembroke next Saturday, also scored a 20-yard field goal by Brody Layman.
Concord finally got on the board in the third quarter when Jack Mangel threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Alvin Howard. Concord finished with negative-3 rushing yards in the game and just 154 total yards of offense compared to 469 for the Pioneers.
Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com.