Making their way to the quarterfinals of the Class 2A Football State Tournament, the Marlow Outlaws drew defending state champions Metro Christian and now head into the game with hopes of making it closer to becoming state champions themselves.
Coming off a 31-28 victory over Chandler, the Outlaws will make the trip to the east side of the state and put their 11-0 record on the line in their upcoming playoff game.
Outlaws head coach Matt Weber, who was in his first tenure as head coach for Marlow in 2006 which was the last time the team made it in to the quarterfinals, knows this is going to be a tough match against the champs.
“I don’t know if there is going to be a tougher challenge than going and playing the defending state champions and the No.1 ranked team in the state and at their place,” Weber said. “It will be a great challenge, but it is one our kids have accepted.”
The third quarter proved to be a big reason for the victory over Chandler in what looks to be the final home game of the 2020 season. During the third quarter action, a huge touchdown run came from Julian Marroquin and Will Bergner also caught the touchdown pass from Jace Gilbert.
Weber said his team had three turnovers, which is uncharacteristic of his squad. He hopes they keep to the plan and make sure to put the turnovers in the back of their mind.
“First of all, we ended up turning the ball over three times which is very unlike us so it doesn’t seem like we had the ball much, but once we did get the ball we felt really good about running the ball,” Weber said. “We felt like if we can hold on to the football, we will be able to score points and the encouraging thing about that game — as we all know, we didn’t have one of our better games and still found a way to win. So we know we still have better football ahead of us.”
With a few more practices left, the Outlaws will see a team that uses an empty offense and throw the ball most of the time, according to Weber, so he hopes the defense will keep to their game plan while running the ball on offense.
“They are really solid in all areas on both sides of the ball and I feel like we have an advantage in the kicking game, but they are well coached,” Weber said. “Defensively, they play man defense in the back end and pack the box with everyone else to stop the run, so they are really fast on that side of the ball. We will have to have good fundamentals and get next to people on pass routes. And offensively, we will have to get some blocks and run right by them.”
Game time will kickoff at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 at Metro Christian and even though it will bring long travels, Weber said they can’t use that as an excuse and must be ready to play to advance to the semi-finals.
“We are proud of them. We started with 64 teams that had a chance to be in the playoffs. We are now down to eight so that is an accomplishment right there,” Weber said. “We are not doing a whole lot different because the kids know what a big game it is by who we are playing and where we are at in the season. It has been a long time — since Frederick — since we have been on a bus. It is another challenge that four of us in our class will have and we will have to jump on the bus and not use that long bus ride as an excuse to not be ready to play when we get there.”
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