(Cuero) — The Marion Bulldogs took care of the Jourdanton Indians last week. Now they face the Edna Cowboys.
Marion defeated Jourdanton 28-22 last Friday night in the bi-district round, while Edna crushed San Diego 63-7 last Thursday in their bi-district playoff. Tonight the schools meet in the Class 3A Division 1 area round at Gobbler Stadium in Cuero. The game will be broadcast on KWED.
Bulldog senior quarterback Kade Pape ran for more than 150 yards with three touchdowns in Marion’s bi-district victory. Pape got the Bulldogs on the board with a 96-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, set up by a Dillon Mora interception at the goal line.
Marion running back Tanner Otis also ran for more than 150 yards against Jourdanton, adding a touchdown. The Marion defense picked off three passes on the night, including an Emerson Blevins game-clincher in the fourth quarter.
Marion’s special teams came up big as well. The Bulldogs recovered the second-half kickoff, leading to a score.
Marion head coach Joel Call credited his coaching staff for giving his players the blueprint for success.
“Hats go off to our coordinators. Coach (Victor) Sierra, our offensive coordinator, coach (Bo) Gonzalez, our defensive coordinator, and coach (Justin) Guerra, our special teams coordinator, spent a lot of time making sure our kids got into positions to be successful,” Call said. “And then the kids executed. Our kids did a real good job.
“I’ve always said that there’s a lot of knowledgeable coaches out there, but the good coaches are the ones that are able to let their kids execute that knowledge. It’s not so much what you know as a coach, but what your kids know. Our coaches do a really good job of preparing our kids, and our kids do a heck of a job of executing and carrying the game plan out. So, we were really fired up by the way everything came together.”
Marion, the third-place team from District 13-3A, improved to 7-4 on the season with last week’s playoff victory. They face an 8-3 Edna team tonight. Edna earned the top seed out of District 15-3A. The winner of tonight’s game advances to the regional semifinals to face the winner of the Ingram Moore-Orange Grove area playoff.
Our Marion football playoff coverage starts at 6:35 p.m. where we’ll visit more with Marion coach Joel Call on the Marion Bulldog report. Then we’ll head to Gobbler Stadium for our Bulldog pregame leading up to kickoff between Edna and Marion at 7 p.m. on AM 1580 and streaming at SeguinToday.com.