The Mavericks used an explosive offense and a stingy defense in a thrilling 35-14 Bi-district home playoff game Friday night.
Marshall improves to (9-2) on the season and will advance to the Area Round where they will take on the Midlothian Heritage Cougars (8-3) at the Historic Tomato Bowl Friday night in Jacksonville.
Montgomery received the opening kickoff and moved the ball out to their own 47 before stalling at their own 47. Instead of punting, they elected to go for the 4th and 1 and the Maverick defense stuffed them for the turnover on downs.
The Maverick offense took advantage of the short field by going directly down field for the touchdown and the 7-0 lead with 5:41 left in the first quarter. Alton Henderson's 25 yard run set up the score.
Henderson did it again it again with a 48 yard touchdown run to give the Marshall a quick 14-0 lead.
The Bears finally got on the board with a drive that cut the Marshall lead 14-7 with 4:32 left in the first half.
Disaster struck on Marshall's next possession as Montgomery blocked a Mav punt and ran it back for the score to tie the game 14-14 with only 49 seconds left in the half.
After the intermission...the Mavericks came out of the locker room on a mission to put the game away. The Mavs opened the half with an eye-popping drive that went 7:52 to take a 21-14 lead in the third quarter.
The Bears answered with another long drive of their own. They stalled at the Marshall 28 yard line and appeared to be going for the 43 yard field goal on a 4th and 7. They faked the punt...but the Mavs weren't fooled and the Marshall defense stuffed the fake for another turnover on downs.
Marshall then put a nail in the coffin when Henderson found a streaking Raijon SIms down the sideline for a 72 yard touchdown pass to put the Mavs up 28-7 with 6:16 left in the game.
The Mav defense held for yet another Montgomery 4th down attempt at their own 30.
Another quick score gave Marshall a 35-14 lead with 4:51 left in the game.
Semaj Gatson ended the night with 172 yards and a touchdown.
Isaiah Bush had 86 yards and a touchdown.
Henderson had 99 yards passing with a touchdown going 3-6 but also 128 yards rushing with two more scores.
Marshall had 483 yards of total offense. 384 yards rushing and 99 yards passing.
Montgomery had 179 total yards of total offense for the game. 98 yards on the ground and 81 yards passing.
Marshall has now won five games in a row and eight of their last nine.
The Bears finish their season at (8-3).
The Mavs improve to (23-13) in first round playoff games.
Marshall is (5-3) in home playoff games since 2005.
They now have a rematch in the Area Round against a Midlothian Heritage team that eliminated them in the same round last season 21-14.
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