MARION — Marion didn’t spend the week trying to forget its mistakes.
The Bulldogs studied them, owned them and then did something about them.
That response showed up all over their home field Friday night as Marion rolled past Uvalde 35-13, delivering the kind of complete performance head coach Joel Call had been looking for from his team.
The Bulldogs had to respond to adversity almost immediately.
After Marion fumbled on its opening drive, Uvalde took over at the Marion 14-yard line. Quarterback Ryan Zamora scored on a 2-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter, giving the Coyotes an early lead.
It would be Uvalde’s last touchdown until its final drive.
“Our theme this week was lose or learn,” Call said. “Did we lose or did we learn?”
By the end of the night, Marion had provided a pretty convincing answer.
The Bulldogs created six turnovers, produced explosive plays offensively and received strong performances from both Hayden Hamilton and Cooper Benavides at quarterback.
Benavides delivered one of Marion’s biggest plays early in the game. Facing third-and-12, he found Emerson Blevins along the sideline for a 51-yard touchdown pass, giving the Bulldogs a 7-6 lead.
Later, Hamilton delivered an even bigger strike.
Facing third-and-long from the Marion 16-yard line, Hamilton tossed a short screen to Chase Colon. Colon found room along the far sideline and raced 84 yards for a touchdown, giving the Bulldogs another explosive play and sending Marion’s offense into the end zone in a hurry.
The two-quarterback approach has developed into an asset for Marion rather than a competition Call feels compelled to settle.
Hamilton, a returning letterman who served as the Bulldogs’ backup last season, and Benavides, a sophomore who played on the junior varsity a year ago, have both earned Call’s confidence. Marion showed that trust Friday by allowing each quarterback to operate the offense rather than significantly changing the playbook depending on who was behind center.
“Both do some really good things, and they’ve been competing all summer, all fall,” Call said. “They’ve risen to the occasion.”
What Call appreciates just as much is how the competition has affected — or, more accurately, hasn’t affected — their relationship.
“They’re each other’s biggest cheerleader when the other one’s in,” Call said. “You don’t see that a whole lot nowadays. A lot of times it can be some negative thoughts and stuff like that. But those guys are really positive and really encourage the other person to be great.”
That attitude helped Marion’s offense hum against Uvalde.
Hamilton and Benavides were trusted to make decisions at the line of scrimmage, and both looked comfortable directing the offense. The Bulldogs’ quarterbacks also connected with Marion’s playmakers for several explosive gains, including the early strike from Benavides to Blevins and Hamilton’s 84-yard touchdown pass to Colon.
Colon provided another playmaking option out of the backfield, turning a short screen into one of the game’s biggest plays.
“He makes up for what he doesn’t have in size,” Call said. “He makes up for it in heart, and he never stops, which is what you want out of a back.”
Marion also generated production downfield through its receivers, though the longtime receivers coach in Call still found something to critique after a 22-point victory.
“We had a little bit too many drops for my liking as a receiver coach of 20-plus years,” Call said. “We need to catch every ball. But I told them, if you ain’t catching a ball, then you better make up for it some way in your perimeter blocking and downfield blocking. I think they did a good job at that.”
As productive as Marion was offensively, its defense provided perhaps the clearest evidence that the Bulldogs had taken Call’s “lose or learn” message seriously.
After giving up the short field and early touchdown, Marion’s defense settled in and kept Uvalde out of the end zone until the final drive. The Bulldogs repeatedly took the football away, with Camarero intercepting three passes as part of a six-turnover night.
Those takeaways were the payoff from a week in which Call and his coaching staff deliberately put Marion’s previous mistakes in front of their players.
“We were very raw. We were very unfiltered with our kids and the mistakes that us as coaches made,” Call said. “We had kids get up each week and say, ‘Hey, what did you learn? What did you learn from the game?’”
The defensive corrections were specific.
Marion wanted better fits. It wanted defenders handling their gap responsibilities. It wanted improved eye discipline in the secondary.
Then the Bulldogs went out and demonstrated it against Uvalde.
“Our kids came out and they had a great week, and it showed,” Call said. “I’m fired up for our defense. They played awesome.”
Call said Marion keeps its team goals relatively simple, emphasizing the turnover battle, explosive plays and areas of special teams. The Bulldogs hadn’t met enough of those standards previously.
Against Uvalde, the connection between those details and the scoreboard was difficult to miss. Marion’s defense created six turnovers, while the offense repeatedly turned big plays into points, including Benavides’ 51-yard touchdown pass to Blevins and Hamilton’s 84-yard touchdown pass to Colon.
“It’s ironic how they equal wins,” Call said.
Yet Call’s evaluation of Marion goes deeper than whether the Bulldogs leave a stadium with more points than their opponent.
Before the game, Call had talked about the standards he wanted Marion to represent regardless of the final score: integrity, uncommon effort, enthusiasm and love.
After a 35-13 victory, those remained the standards by which he judged his team.
“I feel good. I feel like our kids executed,” Call said. “Remember those things that I talked about? Integrity, effort, uncommon effort. Live with enthusiasm and love. I think our kids did a good job of demonstrating that tonight.
“If we can represent out on the field those four things, then I’m happy no matter the outcome.”
Friday night in Marion, the Bulldogs got both.
They overcame an early mistake, responded to Uvalde’s short-field touchdown and then played to the identity their coach has been preaching — and the outcome followed.
Ending non-district play 3-1, Marion will return to start district play at home next Friday vs SA Cole.