Marlington football tunes up for Eastern Buckeye Conference play with rout of Warren JFK
LIBERTY TWP. — The Marlington High School football team showed it's ready to begin Northeastern Buckeye Conference play with Saturday's 49-7 demolition of Warren JFK at Liberty High School.
Freshman Cameron Evanich's 8-yard sack of Eagles quarterback Fred Bolchalk set up senior Beau Himmelheber's 52-yard punt return touchdown late in the second quarter. Those plays epitomized the Dukes' domination.
"Our guys had a really good week of practice," Marlington coach Joe Cardinal said as his squad rebounded from last week's 14-6 loss to Chaney. "They executed ... they did a really good job."
The Dukes (4-1) scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and had two more in the second. Then Evanich broke through the Eagles line to sack Bolchalk on a third-and-9 play deep in JFK territory.
"We came back and did what we needed to do," Evanich said of the defense. "There's some small stuff we need to work on to get better.
"It was just awesome to come here and do what we did."
Himmelheber caught Bolchalk's punt and circled around looking for an opening. When he spotted one, he zipped past the Eagles for his second touchdown of the game.
"That's just me making a play," Himmelheber said. "That's my guys trusting in me and my trusting my guys on return to make a block.
"When I caught it, I took a little scan to try and find my alley," he said. "I went left and saw some guys shifting left, so I reversed my field and guys made some huge blocks that led me to the end zone."
Himmelheber set up the Dukes' score on their opening possession with a 67-yard pass reception from junior quarterback Bryson McCord. On the next play, Himmelheber scored on a 2-yard run.
Late in the quarter, sophomore Bryson Jones doubled the lead with a 12-yard TD run.
Senior running back Carter Difloure shed four tacklers in scoring a 17-yard touchdown early in the second quarter. McCord hit Koby Vance with a 5-yard scoring pass to make it 28-0.
McCord completed 12 of 21 passes for 178 yards. Himmelheber caught five of them for 117 yards.
The Eagles (1-3) are a shell of them team that was last season's Division VII state runners-up. Cardinal said he wasn't concerned that his team would be overconfident.
"We just go [for] 1-and-0 every single week, that's really our goal," Cardinal said. "You've got to take each week as it comes so there's no overlooking an opponent.
"I mean it's Warren JFK — this is a proud school and they've got some really good players. If you overlook these guys, then you are in trouble. We don't have the luxury to overlook anybody."
Himmelheber agreed.
"They have some good guys," he said, citing wide receivers Noah Elser and Marcus Komora as well as Bolchalk.
"That's a powerhouse team, they went to state last year and I know [the school] has won state before.
"And they kicked our butt last year so we knew we're not a team that can overlook somebody and beat them."
The Dukes open league play at Carrollton (2-3) on Friday.
"We'll celebrate this tonight and then we'll focus on Carrollton," Cardinal said of the team's one game at a time mindset.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Marlington High School football beats Warren JFK in OHSAA Week 5
