By Brent Maycock – KSHSAA Covered
The biggest concern for Tony Trimble going into Friday night’s season opener wasn’t whether his Marysville team was experienced or talented enough to meet the challenge before it with two-time reigning Class 2A state champion Nemaha Central coming to two.
With nine starters back, Trimble was plenty confident in the product the Bulldogs would put on the field.
But with Nemaha riding a 26-game winning streak and being the dominant force in Class 2A the past two seasons, and Marysville coming off back-to-back 3-6 seasons, Trimble’s biggest concern was whether his players believed they could play with and beat the Thunder.
“That’s something we spent a lot of time in the days leading up to it, reminding them that (the Thunder) are high school kids just like we are,” Trimble said. “They’ve done some good things, obviously, but they’re also a new team this year and have some different people with some different looks, trying to figure out how all their pieces fit together.
“Our kids did extremely well not being intimidated.”
Marysville not only faced the challenge, but pulled off arguably the biggest upset in the state on Friday night. Resting heavily on a defense that stymied Nemaha Central time and time again, the Bulldogs opened the 2024 season with a head-turning 16-8 victory to end the Thunder’s 11-man best winning streak.
It was the first win by Marysville over its rival from 30 minutes east down U.S. Highway 36 since 2010 when the Thunder were the Nemaha Valley Raiders (prior to its consolidation with Baileyville B&B). The two programs hadn’t played since 2013 with Nemaha bringing a three-game winning streak into Friday’s matchup.
Nemaha also brought in one of the state’s top offensive players from a year ago, junior quarterback Carter Hajek, who ran for a school-record 2,431 yards and 43 touchdowns a year ago while also throwing for 962 yards and 10 touchdowns.
And while Hajek still had a solid game on Friday night – rushing for 125 yards and a touchdown and throwing for 121 yards – Marysville was able to hold him in check and keep him out of the end zone for all but one 17-yard touchdown run.
Marysville’s defense set the tone right away, forcing a fumble on Nemaha’s second play from scrimmage that Dakota Slupianek recovered. The Bulldogs converted the short field into a 2-yard touchdown run by Will Otott to take a quick 8-0 lead.
Marysville got another quick chance when on its next possession, Nemaha Central had a bad snap on a punt, but the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on that short field, throwing an interception on the next play. Hajek then broke his only touchdown run in the second quarter, tying the game 8-8 at halftime.
Early in the third quarter, Otott broke a 59-yard run to set the Bulldogs up for what turned out to be the game-winner. Slupianek scored on a 9-yard run and Otott hit Brody Lawrence for the second two-point conversion pass of the game.
The Bulldog defense did the rest, making a goal-line stand to keep the Thunder out of the end zone late in the game after having another stop in the red zone earlier in the half and a goal-line stand in the first half as well.
The defense came up with two interceptions in addition to the first-quarter fumble recovery and held Nemaha Central to its fewest points since a 7-0 win over Osage City in the 2020 playoffs.
“Our defense definitely deserves the game ball,” Trimble said. “They stepped up so many times. Our defense just played outstanding. Last year we started a lot of young kids and that experience definitely showed up Friday night.”
Marysville experienced a revival under head coach Dustin Heuer a decade ago, going from three straight winless seasons from 2012-14 to coming with a point of winning the Class 3A state title in 2017, falling 7-6 to Sabetha in the championship game.
That came in the midst of a stretch of four straight winning seasons. But four straight losing seasons followed leading into this season with Trimble taking over in 2022 after successful 16-year stint at Valley Heights where he posted eight seasons of seven or more victories.
Marysville was just 3-6 in his first two seasons, but Friday’s win gives hope that the Bulldogs are on their way back into being a contender once again.
“It definitely does a lot for us,” Trimble said. “We play one of, if not the, toughest schedules in 3A. It gives our kids the confidence to know they can play with really good football teams and have a chance to be successful. The kids didn’t get intimidated and didn’t flinch. We knew they would make plays and do things well and we just had to keep responding and keep an even keel.
“They were excited about the win, but after we watched film they know that there are a lot of things we can do to get better. I don’t think they’re satisfied winning one game against a good opponent. They want to get better and if we can put it together with the effort and cohesiveness we had Friday night, the season can be pretty special.”
