Crusaders March Over Marianna

By Clint Cox

PENSACOLA - The Marianna Bulldogs played perhaps their best offensive game of the season. The offense rushed for 330 yards and three touchdowns. Marianna had no turnovers, their lowest number of penalties so far this season and won the time of possession battle by a 3 to 1 margin. As good as that was it was not nearly good enough as the Crusaders of Pensacola Catholic posted a 41-20 win.

As good as the Bulldog offense played, the Bulldog defense never could come up with a way to slow down the Crusader’s running back Marquis Sumler and quarterback Shaun White. The Crusader QB threw for over 230 yards and 4 touchdowns while Sumler ran for 150 yards and a score. Marianna countered with a good offensive showing by their own QB as Fidel Montgomery ran for 192 yards and two scores.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead as they opened the game with a textbook drive. They marched 80 yards on 13 plays and used 6:32 seconds of the first quarter. The drive was culminated on a 17 yard run by Montgomery and a Ryan Rudd extra point kick. Whereas Marianna preferred the long sustaining drive, Pensacola Catholic countered with lighting quick strikes. The first came just one minute after the Marianna score as the Crusaders got a 20 yard scoring pass from White. The extra point kick tied the game at 7-7. Marianna’s next possession ended in a punt and once again the Crusaders struck quickly. Sumler had runs of 28 and 18 yards before scoring on the fifth play of the drive on a 4 yard run. Catholic took a 13-7 lead and once again the Bulldogs went on a long march. They drove for six plays, picking up two first downs and used almost five minutes off the clock. But they were forced to punt again however Rudd’s excellent punt was downed at the Crusader 8 yard line. Catholic didn’t blink the least little bit. After Sumler picked up 21 yards on the ground, White then hit Devin Dukes on a 71 yard scoring strike. The 92 yard scoring drive took all of 22 seconds. By the time the first half ended Pensacola Catholic led 27-7. To prove that stats don’t always tell the correct story, the Crusaders only had the ball in the first half for 5 ½ minutes, compared to 19 ½ for Marianna.

Marianna came out in the second half and showed they still had some fire in their bellies as Marjean Dean capped off a nice long drive with a 7 yard run to make it a 27 - 13 game. But again the Crusaders fired right back with a scoring pass from White to make it 34-14. The Bulldogs kept fighting and Montgomery got his second TD of the night in the fourth quarter with a 15 yard run. Rudd’s extra point kick made it 34-20 but the Crusader’s tacked on one more score later in the game to seal the 21 point victory. With the loss Marianna fell to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in district play. Pensacola Catholic improved to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in district play. Marianna will hit the road again this week, their third straight road game, as they travel to Blountstown.