MARION — The scoreboard says Marion couldn’t have asked for much more through the first two weeks of the season.
Head coach Joel Call sees it differently.
The Bulldogs improved to 2-0 with a 65-26 victory over Austin Crockett last Friday, giving Marion 100 points through its first two games. But as the Bulldogs prepare for their first true road test Friday night at Devine, Call is less concerned with how many points his team has scored than how cleanly those points have come.
“You know, I was a little bit frustrated in the first half,” Call said of the Crockett victory. “I thought we were a little bit sloppy all around on special teams, defense and offensively.”
That’s the standard Call is attempting to establish for a Marion team that has already shown it can win in two very different ways.
The Bulldogs crawled back in a 35-34 win against Gonzales in week one before overwhelming Crockett by 39 points last week. Now Marion heads to Warhorse Stadium with an opportunity to begin a season 3-0 while facing a Devine team coming off its first victory.
Yet Call doesn’t want the Bulldogs measuring their progress strictly through wins, losses or final margins.
“It’s a constant process of trying to be the best that we can be,” Call said. “I thought we could have been a little bit better, a little bit cleaner.”
That became particularly important against Crockett.
Marion exploded for 34 points in the opening quarter but didn’t maintain that same level of execution throughout the first half. Call felt his players began allowing the circumstances of the game to affect the standard they had established for themselves.
It was particularly fitting considering Marion’s theme entering the week: keep the outside noise outside.
Call challenged his players at halftime to recognize that some of that noise had begun creeping in.
“That’s going to rob us from being great and take away from our growth and progress,” Call said. “I thought our kids got a little bit complacent.”
The Bulldogs responded emphatically.
After leading 40-20 at halftime, Marion outscored Crockett 25-6 over the final two quarters to turn an already comfortable advantage into a 65-26 final.
For Call, however, the lesson extended beyond one Friday night.
Blowout victories can create their own challenges. When the scoreboard says everything is going well, Call wants his players disciplined enough to recognize the areas where it isn’t.
“We want to feel like we were clean in our execution and in all the processes of what we’re trying to do,” Call said. “It’s just that constant battle of trying to keep our kids engaged and with the right mindset.”
Offensively, Marion has given opponents plenty to think about.
Call continues to rotate both of his quarterbacks (Hayden Hamilton, Cooper Benavides) and has been pleased with their ability to manage an offense that gives them considerable responsibility at the line of scrimmage.
“They’re the ones that have that steering wheel,” Call said. “We really encourage them to make sure you’re driving our offense to the right spots.”
More importantly, Marion has demonstrated the ability to attack defenses in different ways.
Whether through its running game, receivers on the perimeter or options from the slot, Call believes the structure of the offense gives Marion answers when an opponent commits resources toward taking away one particular area.
“You take away the outside guys, the inside guys should step up,” Call said. “You take away the inside guys, and our running game should step up. So, it’s kind of one of those pick-your-poison type deals.”
The next defense tasked with finding an answer belongs to Devine.
The Warhorses enter Friday at 1-1 after opening the season with a 39-21 loss at San Diego before responding with a 35-17 home victory over Johnson City.
Call sees a program undergoing changes but already showing signs of responding to them.
“They’ve got some athletic pieces, and their kids are playing well,” Call said. “It’s a new challenge to us.”
It’s also a new environment.
Marion was technically the visiting team in its season-opening meeting with Gonzales, but the game was played at a neutral site. Friday will send the Bulldogs away from familiar surroundings for their first true road game of the season.
That makes Call’s message about focus particularly timely.
After challenging his players to block out the outside noise last week, Call has given them a new question to consider this week:
Where’s your vision at?
Call wants the Bulldogs to understand the balance between focusing on the task directly in front of them and recognizing where they ultimately want the season to go.
“I think a lot of people get caught up in the here and now,” Call said. “We want to have our eyes ahead to the long-term goals and objectives. But you’ve got to take care of the here and now for that.”
Friday’s trip to Devine represents the here and now.
And despite everything Marion has accomplished offensively through two games, Call’s greatest emphasis this week may be on the other side of the football.
The Bulldogs allowed 34 points against Gonzales and another 26 against Crockett. Call isn’t questioning his defense’s effort — he believes Marion has consistently played hard and pursued the football.
What he wants now is greater discipline within the scheme.
“Keeping their vision right, keeping their eyes on their keys and making sure that we can’t have any busted coverages,” Call said. “Our effort’s there, man. Our kids run really hard to the ball, and that’s the thing that we’re going to hang our hat on.”
The next step is making sure that effort is paired with trust.
Against an athletic Devine team playing at home, Call doesn’t want defenders attempting to compensate for one another and inadvertently creating openings elsewhere.
“When you start trying to do somebody else’s job or trying to do something else, that’s when your part is not taken care of,” Call said. “Just continue to trust the defensive scheme and the whole process of what we’ve got going on over there.”
That idea of trust fits into the larger challenge Call has placed in front of his team.
Marion is undefeated. The Bulldogs have scored 100 points. Their most recent game ended with a 39-point victory.
Call doesn’t want any of that to convince his players they’ve arrived.
Two weeks into the season, he’s still asking them to sharpen their execution, eliminate distractions and keep their eyes on where they ultimately want to go.
The next step toward that destination comes Friday night in Devine.
And if the Bulldogs want to return home 3-0, Call’s message is that they can’t allow a perfect record to distract them from everything that remains imperfect.
Kickoff: Marion (2-0) at Devine (1-1), Friday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m., Warhorse Stadium.