Rare touchdown pass lifts DeWitt Central past Marion

MARION – That was DeWitt Central's first, and, so far, only touchdown pass of the season you saw Friday night at Thomas Park, folks.

'Unfortunately,' said quarterback Logan Sheppard.

The unfortunately part belonged to the Marion Indians after Sheppard's clutch throw and receiver James Grell's clutch catch of that clutch throw resulted in a touchdown early in the fourth quarter that lifted Central to a 14-8 win.

Facing 4th-and-11 at the Marion 39, Sheppard shot a pass about 15 yards downfield over the middle that Grell caught just in front of a diving Indians defender. He ran the rest of the way untethered to the end zone.

'We saw that they were pulling their safeties over, so we tried to split them,' said Sheppard, who completed six of 10 throws for 79 yards. 'We just read the defense, their safety came over hard, so we threw it to our middle guy. Props to James Grell on that, because he had really good hands there.'

Central (3-2, 1-2 in Class 3A District 4) runs a veer option attack offensively heavy on the run, which sort of explains the lack of TD passes. Though you'd think Sheppard and company would have gotten a couple prior to Friday just by sheer accident.

This was a bounce-back victory for a club that was battered last week by Cedar Rapids Xavier, 59-3.

'With the way things transpired last week against Xavier, we were asking our guys to recuperate mentally and physically,' said DeWitt Central Coach Mike Miller. 'They did a great job.

Marion (1-4, 0-2) did a nice job physically against a physical team, holding Central to 150 yards on the ground. Still, it wasn't enough, and the Indians are wearing a four-game losing streak.

'We invent ways to beat ourselves,' said Marion Coach Tony Perkins. 'That's the way the season has gone. They play hard, but they just make silly mistakes at the wrong time.'

Sheppard's 6-yard touchdown run on an option keeper and the extra-point kick gave Central a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. Marion took an 8-7 lead early in the third when offensive lineman Eli Frazier plopped on a fumble by his own team in the end zone, and Kory Walsh ran in for a two-point conversion.

A 53-yard sideline fade pass from quarterback Hayden Meister to Ryan Whalen was the big play on Marion's lone scoring drive of the night. Fullback Nick Kramer took a handoff from the Central 5 to the 2 before fumbling forward, with Frazier being Eli on the spot.

Marion drove to the Central 7 late in the third and early in the fourth, with Walsh stopped a yard shy of first down on a 4th-and-3 run. Perkins also lamented the two interceptions his quarterbacks Meister and Gage Kray threw, and a pair of near misses when Marion receivers were wide open for potentially huge plays.

He remains one win shy of tying the legendary Les Hipple for most career coaching victories at Marion. The Indians play next week at Maquoketa.

'We've got to get better, plain and simple,' Perkins said. 'There is nothing you can do but get better from this point. We've just got to stop beating ourselves.'

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