Dominant Flyers Stay Undefeated and Add To Dynasty

Marion Local raced out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back on their way to a 42-7 win over Newark Catholic.  The win gives the school it's 12 state championship.  For the Flyers it's been a dominant run, no it's been a dynasty.  To say Marion Local is a football dynasty would be putting it lightly.  The Flyers now have their 12th state title, not only in school history, but since 2000.  That's 21 seasons, 15 of which they were state champions or state runners up.  They have an .881 all-time playoff winning percentage.  They've outscored their opponents 178-21 during the 2021 playoffs.  So yeah, they're definitely a dynasty.  Newark Catholic has a rich tradition as well.  Back in the 1980's Newark Catholic won 5 state championships and were runner up 3 times.  So they're a program and community are no strangers to dynasties themselves. Newark Catholic's defense got off to a great start by stuffing Marion Local's first 3 plays from scrimmage and forcing the Flyers to punt.  After that, things would get rocky for the Green Wave as the Flyers would score touchdowns on their next 3 drives to take a 21-0 lead.  Newark was able to add a touchdown in the second quarter on a 10 yard reception by Mason Hackett, but that would be the extent of their scoring on the day. Senior QB Peyton Otte lead the way for the Flyers passing 252 yards 3 touchdowns and running for 83 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Otte's number one target on the day was Brady Ronnebaum caught 6 of his 7 targets for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns.  For the most part Newark Catholic did a great job of slowing down the Flyer rushing attack. Newark Catholic struggled most of the game to get their offense going.  Marion Local's coach Tim Goodwin said in preparation of playing Green Wave Quarterback Cole Canter "my stomach still doesn't feel right cause I've been worried all week about him".  The flyer defense stymied Canter and the Green Wave offense all day as he finished 12-26 for 103 yards with a TD and 2 INT's. Talking to Coach Tim Godwin and his players after the game did they care about #12 in school history?  "No we don't really talk about the external type stuff".  When Goodwin asked his players if he cared about #12 their answer was a resounding "NO we just wanted to get the win".  So while people like me and the fans like to talk about things like dynasties and things like that, what makes teams like that great is many times that they aren't focused on tradition.  There's no laurels to rest on from week to week in the MAC conference.  When speaking of the way the MAC prepares teams for the playoffs Goodwin said "you just have to survive, and if you do things will probably okay".  Well coach, today you survived and you're okay.  Oh, and you're taking home the state championship to Maria Stein.