Marietta’s Owen Riley (14) goes up to catch a pass as Whitehall-Yearling’s Darian Radcliff (34) defends during Friday’s game at Don Drumm Stadium. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Make no mistake about it — the Marietta Tigers are playing good enough defensive football to be winning games as they reach the halfway point in the 2025 season.

Unfortunately for first-year head coach Mike Kupfner and his Tigers, their struggles on the other side of the ball are preventing them from doing so.

On a Homecoming Friday night at Don Drumm Stadium, the Tigers saw their scoreless streak extended to two football games and nine quarters as they suffered a 21-0 loss to the visiting Whitehall-Yearling Rams.

Marietta had the ball plenty in the game as they ran 60 offensive plays from scrimmage compared to 43 for the Rams but they simply could not find a way to get the ball into the end zone.

Of those 60 plays from scrimmage the Tigers totaled just 142 total yards and average of 2.3 yards per play.

Marietta’s Yousuf Algarhy (1) tries to track down Whitehall-Yearling’s Nate Jenkins during Friday’s game at Don Drumm Stadium. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

“Offensively we are just in a really bad slump right now,” said Kupfner. “We shortened the playbook a little bit this week to try and get some things ironed out and felt like we had a great week of practice but obviously we didn’t perform like we wanted to tonight.”

The Tiger defense limited the Rams to just 20 more total yards of offense but couldn’t keep them out of the end zone.

After a scoreless first quarter, Whitehall-Yearling wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the second quarter.

Late in the first quarter the Tigers had put together one of their best drives of the game but came up empty when D’andre Fiffer picked off Tiger starting quarterback Trenton McVey and returned the ball all the way out to the 46-yard line.

A 12-yard run by Jayson Stafford followed by a 16-yard jaunt by quarterback Malachi Johnson moved the ball deep into Tiger territory before Johnson connected with senior Christian Miller on a 24-yard touchdown pass.

The kick was good giving the Rams the 7-0 lead.

Marietta once again moved the ball onto the Ram side of the field only to see their next possession result in a turnover on downs.

Yearling took over possession at their own 42-yard line and went right back to work.

A 30-yard run by Stafford, the biggest play from scrimmage by either team in the game, moved the ball inside the red-zone and two plays later Johnson found a wide-open Miller in the back of the end zone for their second touchdown combination of the quarter and a 14-0 lead.

On the next Tiger possession, Kupfner turned the signal calling duties over to senior Lucas Miller and they once again moved the ball into Ram territory only to turn the ball over on downs once again at the 35-yard line.

The Tiger defense gave the ball right back to the offense when seniors Teddy Bauer and Kobe Alexander sacked Johnson forcing a punt but once again the Tiger drive ended on a turnover, this one an interception by Corey Jackson off of a Miller pass.

Marietta’s defense got them the ball back once again when Alexander stripped the ball away from Johnson and Dameon Gulley recovered and returned the ball all the way down to the Ram 18-yard line with 30 seconds remaining in the half.

McVey returned at quarterback but the Tigers were unable to cash in on four plays inside the red-zone before the half expired.

Kupfner felt like both McVey and Miller as well as sophomore Owen Warden were all in the mix to win the starters job in camp and he gave all three of them an opportunity looking to find the hot hand.

“We were trying to create a spark and at the beginning of the season it was all three of those guys in the mix and they all have their positives and their negatives,” said Kupfner. “There is still a lot of season left and we are just trying to find a guy that we can feel comfortable with back there.”

Neither team could make much headway offensively in the third quarter before the Rams got a big play on special teams in the final quarter to turn it into a three-possession lead.

Tiger punter Owen Riley momentarily dropped the snap but was still able to get off a 46-yard punt but the delay may have allowed the Tigers to over-pursue their coverage and Corey Jackson returned the punt 75-yards for the score.

For the rest of the game the Tigers turned the quarterback duties over to Warden who did connect with Braiden Plaugher on a 27-yard completion but was unable to get the ball into the end zone.

Defensively Marietta caused three turnovers in the game and limited their opponent to under 150 total yards, normally a recipe for a win.

“Defensively we are playing our tails off and we are giving our offense every chance we just haven’t been able to capitalize on it,” said Kupfner. “That falls on me as the head guy and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and figure some things out.”

The Rams, who improved to 3-2 with the win, were led by Stafford with 90 yards on 17 carries while Johnson completed 7-of-14 pass attempts for 58 yards and the two scores.

Logan Boyd led the Tigers in rushing with 48 yards on just seven carries while Will Tornes carried the ball 15 times for 38 yards.

Alexander finished with 34 yards on 10 carries.

Kupfner hopes that better days are ahead for his 0-5 Tigers in the second half of the season.

“Our guys are playing hard and they are locked in we’ve just got to find a way to turn this around,” said Kupfner.

Marietta will travel to Circleville next Friday night.