Saturday, to determine Sweet Home’s opponent for this Friday night, Marist took the heart out of Ontario early and won comfortably 38-23.
Ontario scored two meaningless touchdowns in the fourth quarter against Marist substitutes to make the game and the statistics look a lot better than they actually were.
Ryan Coldren, the 6’8″ senior quarterback, found his favorite receiver, Tyler Coleman, open often and open deep. Coldren hooked up with Coleman for three touchdowns and had another called back on a holding penalty. For the night, Coldren was 12 for 15 for 253 yards and four touchdowns.
Marist’s running game was kept under control by Ontario for the most part, though Dale Morris had a long touchdown run nullified by another penalty. Ontario only allowed 100 yards rushing between Morris and Hunt, but each scored a touchdown. Ontario had 366 total yards, 20 more than Marist, but much of it came in the 4th quarter. Marist had seven penalties, six for holding or illegal blocks on offense and all in the 10 to 15 yard range.
Marist scored on its first four possessions, twice on their very first possession of a drive and once on the second play of their drive. Ontario didn’t score until late in the second quarter, tackling Hunt in the endzone for a safety. Then they followed up with a 29 yard pass from Jake Beck to Paul Bentz following the free kick, making the score 26-9 at halftime.
Marist ended all hope for an Ontario comeback when he connected with Coleman for a 70 yard scoring strike on their opening possession in the second half.