Published: October 31, 2009 01:25 am      

Big second half gives United title

MARION CENTER — A huge second-half effort helped propel United to its first Heritage Conference title with a 36-18 victory Friday night over host Marion Center.

“Credit our kids, the defense rose up,” United coach Greg Mytrysak said. “They were facing a lot of adversity throughout that game. We couldn’t stop them for a while, then when something started to go our way, we fed off of it. That’s the way we’ve been all year. We talked about playing like champions and we went out and did that.

“Winning this title was a goal, but it was hard because we had to change the attitude and get the confidence. Once we started winning, we started to gain confidence.”

The Lions (8-1) trailed 18-14 at halftime, but then put 22 points on the scoreboard in the third quarter while the United defense held the Stingers (7-2) scoreless for the entire second half.

“I knew we had to come out big,” senior lineman Jordan Long said. “Marion Center had a solid offense and a big offensive line so I knew we had to come off the ball and it had to be our best defensive game we’ve played.”

“Our defense put a lot of pressure on the quarterback and helped shut down the run,” United senior linebacker Matt Jones added.

The Lions got off to a strong start.

Marion Center took the opening kickoff, but fumbled the ball back to the Lions at the United 22.

Six running plays later, Kody Oliver scored from the 3 then added the conversion run to put the Lions ahead 8-0.

The Stingers answered right back with five-play drive that covered 73 yards, the largest chunk of that coming on a 69-yard screen pass from quarterback Ryan Lightcap to Justin LaMantia. The conversion run failed and Marion Center trailed by just two.

Jed Patterson, who rushed for 105 yards in the first half, scored two touchdowns for Marion Center on runs of 44 and

18 yards to take a commanding 18-8 lead at the 11:47 mark of the second quarter.

United took over at midfield with 4:29 left before the half.

The Lions put together a five-play drive capped by a Patrick Fuller pass to Jones for a 35-yard touchdown, to pull the visitors to within 18-14.

“We went into the locker room at halftime and regrouped and came back out and pounded the ball and played United football,” junior fullback/linebacker Shaquille Howard said. “Our problem was we weren’t hitting them enough in the first half.”

The Lions first possession of the second half stalled out.

The Stingers turned right around and marched the ball down to the United 10, but fumbled the ball and the Lions recovered.

A 70-yard run by Oliver and an 18-yard dash by Dom Chero had United on the board, taking the lead for good. Fuller supplied the conversion run.

Marion Center muffed the punt on its next possession and United recovered at the Stingers 4. Three plays later Chero burst in from the 1 for a 28-18 lead.

The Lions blocked the Stingers next punt, recovering at the 25. Three players later Fuller took the ball in from the

10 adding a conversion pass to Jones to set the final.

“We had a bad second half,” Stingers coach Dave Malicky said. “Momentum is a funny thing. We get that drive in with five or six minutes left in the third quarter and it could be a different ball game. I don’t know how many turnovers we had, four or five, and two blocked punts, you can’t do that in this type of game. United made the plays in the second half and we didn’t.”