Published: September 07, 2008 10:54 am         

Tuttle takes it to Marlow

MARLOW —

— The only points that the Marlow Outlaws mustered Friday night in a season-opening loss, came on a safety after a bad snap on a punt attempt in the second quarter of a 27-2 loss to the Tuttle Tigers at Outlaw Stadium.

The Tigers, ranked third in Class 3A, ran the ball at will in the first half. Bryce Moore led the way with 103 yards on 15 carries. He finished with 133 yards on 26 carries. The Tigers rushed for 232 yards on 54 total carries.

“The whipped us, and it’s that simple,” MHS head coach Barry Foster, who was coaching his first game at MHS, said. “They whipped us up front on both sides of the ball.”

Tuttle got on the scoreboard first with a 16-yard run by Moore with 8:24 in the first. Bobby Stone breaker booted the PAT for a 7-0 edge.

Offensively, the Outlaws, ranked seventh, had a total of six first downs, all of which came in the first half. Marlow’s first offensive drive ended with a fumble. MHS started the game with a reverse pass for from Drew Wortham to Chance Casteel for 34 yards. That pass play accounted for the bulk of Marlow’s 90 yards of total offense for the game.

“It was the same stuff we said we couldn’t have happen — not taking care of the ball and penalties,” Foster said.

At the :44 mark in the first, Stonebreaker booted a 31-yard field goal for a 10-0 edge.

It was 17-0 after Ethan Biddy rumbled three yards for a score and Stonebreaker kicked the extra point with less than two minutes expired from the second period. Moore had a 29-year run after Marlow’s Chance Rice booted a 36-yard punt out of his own end zone to help setup the score.

Tuttle punter and quarterback Sterling Koons saw a bad snap on a punt attempt sail past him, and he threw the ball out of the back of the end zone with 1:27 left in the first half to trim Tuttle’s lead to 17-2 at the half.

“We knew that special teams could be a key and they had three or four bad snaps on punts, and we just couldn’t capitalize,” Foster said.

In the second half, Tuttle’s ability to convert on third down was key. Tuttle took the opening kickoff of the second half and went on a 14-play drive that took over six minutes off of the clock. The Tigers faced third down three times and converted each of them. The drive ended on a 1-yard run by Koons.

For the game, THS converted third down into first eight times.

“The bad thing was that they ran at us, they didn’t throw it,” Foster said of THS ability to come up with a fresh set of downs. “Sterling Koons is a good quarterback, but they didn’t even have to use him.”

Koons ran for 25 yards on 12 carries and was 2-of-6 passing for 31 yards.

The last score of the game came on a 33-yard field goal by Stonebreaker with 8:02 left in the fourth for the 27-2 final.

Wortham led Marlow offensively with 68 total yards.

The Outlaws will try to get on the winning track this Friday at Elgin. Elgin opened the season with a 35-10 loss at Plainview.

     

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