MORAN — A football game between Yates Center Middle School and Marmaton Valley Junior High kept the fans on the edges of their seats Thursday evening, with Yates Center forcing a late turnover to seal a 62-60 victory.
“I’ve had games where we’ve lost like that, but I don’t think we’ve ever scored 60 in a loss,” Marmaton Valley head coach Dan Uhlrich said. “Usually, when you score 60, it’s an automatic W.”
Marmaton Valley had scored to take a four-point lead, 60-56, but a penalty nullified a two-point conversion. “Can’t argue with that,” Uhlrich said. “It was the correct call.”
Yates Center then scored in the waning moments to take a 62-60 lead.
Marmaton Valley managed to bounce back, but lost a fumble in scoring position to end the game.
“We had three turnovers, and they didn’t,” Uhlrich said. “It was a high-scoring game. Our kids played hard.”
Marmaton Valley received several key plays from Ty Lord, while Brevin Campbell and Cooper Scharff both excelled in the running bame. Todd Stevenson and Garrett Morrison both had touchdown receptions as well.”
Meanwhile, Yates Center’s Colby Derrick was a running machine, racking up several big plays for the visitors.
“We couldn’t stop him,” Uhlrich said. “We’ve gotta get back to the fundamentals of tackling. We’re gonna hit that hard in practice.”
