MORAN — As much as head coach Daniel Uhlrich enjoys seeing aggressiveness from his Marmaton Valley Junior High, he’s equally as enamored when his players are smart.
Take, for instance, Thursday’s home tilt against Pleasanton.
The Wildcats led 30-6 at halftime, but Pleasanton had a strong second half, closing to within 38-32 in the final few minutes.
Marmaton Valley had the ball, and Tyler Lord, who had already thrown for a touchdown pass and ran for two more, was hoping to chew up the rest of the game clock.
As he neared the first down marker on a run to the outside, Lord had two options. He could continue sprinting, and likely running out of bounds; or he could fall inbounds to keep the clock running.
He chose the latter, forcing Pleasanton to use up its timeouts.
The Wildcats eventually relinquished possession, but by then, Pleasanton had burned through its timeouts and only 9 seconds remained in the contest. Time ran out before the Blu-Jays could score.
Uhlrich credited Lord’s heads-up maneuver.
“In all honesty, that may have decided the game,” Uhlrich said after the 38-32 victory. “If he doesn’t go down in bounds, they probably have 40 seconds left instead of 9. It was just a really smart play.”
Statistics from the game were unavailable, but Uhlrich credited his offensive line of Wyatt Barnett, Chris Ferguson, Mason Ferguson and Todd Stevenson for controlling the line of scrimmage in the first half.
“The second half, the other team played with a little more intensity,” Uhlrich said.
Stevenson added a touchdown run and reception. Cooper Scharff also ran for a touchdown.
Marmaton Valley travels to Yates Center next Thursday.
