Marion senior kicker Dylan Pieri briefly considered his response after delivering arguably the two biggest plays in Marion's 24-21 season-opening victory over Wynne at Premier Bank Stadium. Pieri's biggest play of the game was also the last one, when he boomed a 40-yard field goal with no time remaining in regulation to boot the Patriots past Wynne. Pieri's kick culminated Marion's 11-play, 62-yard drive, which featured a fourth-down conversion and bled the final 4:38 from the game clock. "It's the best feeling of my life so far," said Pieri. "I thought I was going to make it the entire time." The second play featured Pieri, who also recorded four touchbacks against Wynne, extend a third-quarter drive by running 27 yards on a fake punt to convert a fourth-and 12. Marion senior quarterback Ben Gerrard connected with junior receiver Donnie Cheers, Jr. three plays later for a nine-yard TD toss to give the Patriots to a 21-14 lead. "We've run that fake punt a few times in practice, but I never thought we'd run it in a game," said Pieri. "We called it and I said 'I guess we're doing this' and our guys executed it." The victory handed Lance Clark the first win of his head coaching career. "I thought it was a very mature win for our guys, winning when we didn't play our best," said Clark. "I thought we battled the whole way." Marion, which beat Wynne for the first time since 2018, scored first when senior tailback Cam Anderson bolted 36 yards for a score with 4:28 left in the second quarter. Wynne responded on its first play of its ensuing drive when quarterback John Watson connected with Tre Holmes for a 62-yard TD toss, but the Yellowjackets missed the extra point and trailed 7-6. Marion embarked on a nine-play, 65-yard drive on its final possession of the first half. Anderson covered the final eight yards on his second scoring sprint of the night and the Pats led 14-6 at halftime. Anderson ran 21 times for 94 yards and two scores against Wynne. Wynne linebacker Timmy Watson intercepted a pass early in the third period to set the Yellowjackets up with a first-and-10 on the Marion 21-yard line. Two plays later, Alonzo Holmes hit paydirt from 20 yards out to pull Wynne within 14-12. Fullback Kobey Davis notched the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14. Marion led 21-14 after three quarters before Wynne took advantage of a pair of Marion penalties and converted a pair of fourth downs to tie the game on Watson's one-yard TD plunge with 4:38 in regulation. Brayden Mattox's extra point tied the contest at 21. "We have a ton of stuff to tighten up, and the penalties might be the biggest one," admitted Clark. Marion faced a fourth-and-two from its own 41-yard line with less than three minutes in the fourth quarter when Gerrard (14-26 passing for 140 yards and a TD) connected with classmate Kaleb Catt for 18 yards to move the sticks. Catt caught four passes against Wynne for 57 yards. A 21-yard sprint by junior Brian Weatherspoon moved Marion inside the Wynne 20-yard line to set up Pieri's clutch kick. "Our target the entire time was getting to the 20-yard line to give Dylan a shot," said Clark. "We felt really good when we did that." Marion travels to Bryant this Friday night to play the three-time defending Class 7A state champion Bryant Hornets. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and can be viewed on marionpatriots.com.