Sylvan Hills faced Marion in the second round of the playoffs this past Friday and they won 34-32. Their first playoff win since 2020.
It was a rough game as the Bears struggled in the first half, the score at halftime didn’t fully reflect it with the Bears only being down 18-14 at halftime.
Early in the game the Bears showed a shaky offense, a fumble, an interception, all resulting in a quick 12-0 start for the Patriots.
Marion had a drive going in the second quarter that would’ve put them up 18-0, but the Bears defense stood tall and got the stop in the red zone, leading to the first Sylvan Hills score of the game finally seemingly to give much needed momentum to the Bears.
The Bears scored again before half making it 18-14 at the break with hope coming back to the Bears.
Marion shut a lot of that hope down as they immediately scored to start the second half to take a 25-14 lead.
Late in the third quarter Marion had a big 4th and 1 play where they got enough yards on the run but the Bears stripped the ball for a fumble. This turnover by the Bears defense led to another big score making the score 25-20
Marion marched down the field multiple times but each time the Bears defenses seemingly couldn’t be scored on in the red zone getting multiple red zone stops in the third quarter.
In the 4th quarter, Tyler Blakely caught another touchdown pass to give the Bears their first lead of the game, with the score being 25-28.
The Bears defense got yet again another goal line stop when Marion was about to take the lead back.
Tyler Blakely then caught a 91 yard touchdown to extend the Bears lead to 25-34.
Marion responded with their own touchdown making it 32-34 but they were not able to score again giving the Bears the win 32-24.
Wide Receiver Tyler Blakely was on top of the receiving group scoring three touchdowns on 11 receptions for 259 receiving yards.
Isaiah Howell and EJ Duckery both reached the end zone once in the win.
Quarterback Tyler Hampton threw an early interception but after that he threw 4 touchdown passes in the rest of the game, along with 434 yards.
Sylvan Hills hosts Shiloh Christian this Friday to try and punch a ticket to the championship.
