On the final play of the third quarter, Marion sophomore tailback Jalen Smith took a handoff and ran through a huge hole on the right side. He had one man to beat, but the last Mountain Home Bomber in the secondary pushed him out of bounds at the 1-yard line. Marion trailed 16-6 to start the final frame, but the Pats would have four cracks at making it a one-score game with most of the fourth quarter remaining. But that drive ended with a missed field goal, which summed up the night for Marion in a 23-6 loss in the first round of the Class 6A football playoffs at Premier Bank Stadium. Marion (7-4 overall) outgained Mountain Home 303-142 in total offense, but the Patriots surrendered seven sacks to the Bombers and came up empty on four trips inside the Mountain Home (4-7 overall) red zone. “We just made some big stops when we needed them most,” said Mountain Home coach Steve Ary. “We were concerned all week that we'd give up three or four big plays, but we held in there.” “It's disappointing to end this way because we hadn't had a game like this all year,” said Marion coach Lance Clark. “Most of the night we just couldn't seem to get out of our own way.” It was the final home game for 10 Marion seniors, including senior receiver Donnie Cheers, III, who extended his school record for touchdown receptions to 26 late in the second quarter. Cheers snatched four passes for 52 yards, including the 35-yard TD catch. Junior quarterback Ashton Gray completed 11 of 25 pass attempts for 168 yards, while Smith rushed for 79 yards, highlighted by his 51-yard dash to end the third quarter. Senior linebacker Brian Weatherspoon stacked a team-high 14 tackles against Mountain Home, while junior safety Martaveon Banks logged nine stops. Senior defensive linemen Jerrimiah Nichols (six tackles and two sacks), Garrett Dickerson (four stops), and Antanius Tiggs (four tackles) also produced big games on defense. And the Marion defense kept the Pats close most of the evening. Following a Marion three and out on the initial drive of the game, the Patriot stop troops limited Mountain Home to just one first down and a 23-yard field goal despite the Bombers taking over on the Marion 19-yard line. A second Marion three-and-out ended with Mountain Home taking over at the Marion 29-yard line ahead of a third and 11 situation at the Patriot 20-yard line. Mountain Home QB Cade Yates found tailback Jacob Chenowith on a screen pass, and the sophomore rusher rumbled 20 yards into the end zone for a TD and a 9-0 Bomber lead that doubled as the tally after the initial frame. The Pats found their footing on offense early in the second quarter as the hosts continued to march deep into Mountain Home territory. Marion reached the Bomber 2-yard line but faced fourth and 2 when the Mountain Home defense deflected Gray's pass to the end to force a turnover on downs. Playing under windy conditions all night long, the teams swapped field position for most of the rest of the first half when Marion generated a pair of first downs on a drive that began with 1:18 left in the first half. On third and 11 from the Mountain Home 35-yard line, Gray lofted a pass towards Cheers in the back of the south end zone at Premier Bank Stadium, and the senior made a sensational catch, but a missed extra point kept Mountain Home in front 9-6 at halftime. Marion recovered a fumble deep in its own end on the first drive of the third quarter, and the Pats embarked on another long drive into the Mountain Home end. Gray completed passes to three receivers on the drive, but the Pats faced a fourth and 15 at the Bomber 18-yard line before misfiring on a field goal attempt. The Bombers extended the lead two drives later when Yates found Dillon Drewry for a 5-yard yard pass and a 16-6 Mountain Home advantage. Marion faced fourth and 2 on the final play of the third quarter, which led to Smith's long run. The sophomore knocked over the pylon on his way to the end zone but was marked short. On first-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Smith fell into the end zone but was again marked short, followed by a false start on second down. Smith ran for 1 yard on second down, and Gray threw incomplete on third down to again set up a field goal situation. “In that situation, we just wanted to get it to one score and bank that we could find one more stop and we could finish a drive,” explained Clark. But Mountain Home timed the snap and blocked Ben Cherry's field goal attempt to maintain the Bombers' 10-point advantage. Marion forced a three-and-out, but Drewry stepped in front of Gray's first-down pass on an out route and returned it 49 yards for the game-clinching touchdown. “They had a few penalties, and we were able to make a few plays,” said Ary. “We didn't fill up the stat sheet or anything like that, but we did enough to win a big game on the road.” WINNING STREAK SNAPPED Mountain Home's victory snapped an 11-game losing streak to Marion and doubled as the Bombers' second win ever at Marion. The Bombers are now 2-0 against the Pats in the playoffs (17-7 in 2006). BRIGHT FUTURE Marion expects to return 10 starters next season on offense as Cheers is the only senior starter on that unit. That includes its leading passer (Gray with 1,404 yards and 17 touchdowns), leading rusher (Smith with 1,316 yards and 12 TDs), and six of the top seven receivers, led by sophomore Mitrell Lewis and his 22 receptions for 297 yards and four scores. The Patriot defense graduates its leading tackler (Weatherspoon with 110 stops), but the next three tacklers (Victor Turner, Dewayne Williams, and Martaveon Banks) all return in 2023. CLASS 6A PLAYOFF RESULTS Mountain Home 23, Marion 6 Russellville 30, West Memphis 26 Lake Hamilton 55, Searcy 21 LR Christian 27, El Dorado 10 CLASS 6A QUARTERFINAL GAMES Russellville at Greenwood Lake Hamilton at Benton LR Christian at LR Catholic Mountain Home at Pulaski Academy