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Marysville's Jon Fridley (3) picks up yardage on a punt return against Upper Arlington Saturday night. The Monarchs put up a valiant fight before falling to the Golden Bears, 28-16, in a Division I state playoff game.
Marysville Monarchs put up valiant fight; fall to UA Golden Bears in playoff opener
November 04, 2008 at 6:19 am
By TIM MILLER
There is an old quote, attributable to former Newark Catholic football coaching legend J.D. Graham, that goes like this.... “If you’re good enough to get in, you’re good enough to win.”
Graham, who directed the Green Wave to a number of state championships in the 1970s and 1980s, meant that if you are good enough to get into the state playoffs, you’re good enough to win games.
The Marysville Monarchs had stretches Saturday evening in which they were good enough to beat Upper Arlington. The state-ranked Golden Bears, though, were just a little too much for MHS to handle in the trenches and the result was a 28-16 UA win in the opening round of the Division I playoffs.
“This was a winnable game,” said MHS coach Jeff Gafford. “We felt we needed to stay close and we were down only 21-16 in the fourth quarter. There were just a pivotal two or three minutes when we had an interception and they hit a long pass at a critical juncture that sealed the game.”
The Monarchs, who were making their first post-season appearance in seven years, took to the artificial turf at Upper Arlington and absolutely refused to be intimidated by the Golden Bears, who went into the contest with a 9-1 record.
Upper Arlington scored on its opening possession of the contest but couldn’t do much else against the MHS defense for the remainder of the initial period.
The Monarchs turned the ball over on downs after their first eight plays, despite some nice gains by fullback Nate Weeks.
UA had good field position at its own 42 and marched the rest of the field in nine plays.
Alex Drake handled the quarterbacking chores when the ground game was called upon. He picked up critical yardage, as did running backs Tommy Farwick and Isaac Wildermuth.
It was Anthony Finissi, though, who carried the ball the final three yards into the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.
Zach Steen’s extra point gave the Bears a 7-0 lead.
Both teams used the remaining four minutes of the quarter to run the ball but both series ended in the same fashion on punts.
That trend continued early in the ensuing period. The Bears’ series ended after only three plays, thanks in part to a quarterback sack by MHS linebacker Chris Guisinger.
The Monarchs began their next series with a relatively short field at the Upper Arlington 47.
Chris Coburn ripped off a nice run down the left sidelines that gave MHS a first-and-goal at the Bear six.
Weeks bulled his way to the two, leaving Marysville (7-4) with a second-and-goal.
Quarterback Luke Fleming lost a yard on a keeper and an option pitch to Coburn pushed the ball back to the eight, leaving the Monarchs with a fourth-and-goal.
“We knew that Upper Arlington was going to pack the middle,” said Gafford in explaining why the ball wasn’t given to Weeks for a short-yardage burst. “We felt we had two-on-one situations against them to the outside.”
Instead of finding the end zone, the Monarchs had to settle for Hayes Chrispin’s 25-yard field goal, which cut MHS’ deficit to 7-3.
With the quarter at its halfway mark, Upper Arlington went on the march.
The Bears took three minutes off the clock as their running game, sparked by the play of a solid offensive line, pushed the ball down the field.
Wildermuth had a key run of the series, taking the ball from the UA 28 to the MHS 40.
Drake’s keeper moved the pigskin from the 37 to the 20 and three plays later, the Bear signal-caller motored into the end zone from 10 yards out. Steen again lined up the conversion but the effort failed, leaving Upper Arlington up by a 13-3 count.
The Monarchs responded with their first touchdown of the night, thanks in part to a nifty run by Chrispin. He took the ball from Fleming and went from the MHS 38 all the way down to the UA 18.
Coburn picked up 12 yards on the next snap and Chrispin followed with a six-yard run across the end line. Chrispin also booted the extra point, leaving Marysville within 13-10 with 2:12 left until the half.
The next few minutes proved to be a critical juncture of the game.
Upper Arlington’s ensuing series was interrupted when Marysville’s Justin Brogan picked off a pass thrown by John Townsley, UA’s lefty-throwing quarterback.
The Monarchs couldn’t capitalize, however, as the Bears returned the favor when Finissi intercepted a toss by Fleming.
That pick left Upper Arlington with a first down at its own 37.
A few plays later, Townsley completed a huge touchdown pass to 6-4, 220-pound tight end Blake Annen, who is a recruit for the University of Cincinnati.
That scoring strike, with 22 seconds on the clock, came from 28 yards out. Drake then kept the ball for the two-point conversion, which sent the Golden Bears into the turn with a 21-10 margin.
Had a few breaks gone the other way, the Monarchs might have held the lead by a similar margin. As it was, they faced a big challenge of coming back in the second half.
That challenge was well met as the defense held Upper Arlington out of the end zone in the third quarter.
Unfortunately, Marysville couldn’t respond on the offensive end of the field. The Bears snuffed out a Monarch series that went into the red zone when MHS lost the ball on downs at the UA 13.
Punts for both sides were the rule as the third quarter came to a close.
The Monarchs regained possession with 18 seconds left in the period and continued a scoring drive into the final stanza.
Weeks carried the ball across midfield and on the next play, Fleming connected with Chrispin on a 49-yard touchdown pass.
Down 21-16, MHS opted for a two-point conversion, which if successful, would have left them just a field goal away from a tie.
Fleming, though, was hit before he could cross the line, leaving Marysville down by five.
The Golden Bears wiped nearly half of the remaining 10 minutes off the clock with their insurance touchdown drive.
Marysville’s Scott Arnold dropped Drake for a four-yard loss at the UA 21 early in the series.
Townsley, though, hit Steen with a pass that picked up 23 important yards and kept the series alive at the Bear 44.
From there, Drake directed an infantry attack that kept MHS’ defense on its heels.
Drake concluded the 10-yard march with a four-yard keeper into the end zone. Steen’s extra point pushed the Golden Bears out to a 28-16 lead with 5:41 to play.
Marysville ran seven plays down to the Bear 44 but faced fourth-and-four with a little more than three minutes to play.
Upper Arlington came up with a quarterback sack to stop the series and then ran six plays of its own to wipe out the clock.
Gafford acknowledged that UA’s line play gave MHS difficulties on both sides of the ball, stressing the need for more off-season weight room work.
However, he noted that the Monarch defense rallied well in the second half, limiting the Bears to just one touchdown over the final 24 minutes of play.
A look at the final statistics reveals fairly even numbers.
Both teams had 43 ground plays from scrimmage with the Bears tallying 270 yards to Marysville’s 204.
Both teams attempted and completed the same number of passes - 10 and 5 - with MHS holding an 81-71 edge in yardage.
Upper Arlington had one more turnover - 2-1 - and had four penalties (25 yards) to two (17) for Marysville.
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