Owls season ends at hands of top-seeded Marion County in historic postseason loss

By Editor | November 12, 2024 |

By Terry Collins

Courier Sports

JASPER — The Smith County High Owls football team traveled to a tradition rich venue last Friday night in the opening round of Class 2A playoffs.

Smith Co. had played Marion County four times in the playoffs with the Warriors winning all four contests in Carthage with the last matchup coming in 2008.

Marion Co. has won four state titles and been runners-up on five occasions. The Warriors were 64-36 all-time in the playoffs and owned an 8-2 record this season.

The Region 4-2A champs used an explosive second quarter to pull away for a 63-0 victory to end the Owls season at 2-9.

“Our guys competed against a very good, experienced and talented Marion County football team, with a heavy eighteen man senior class,” said Smith County head football coach Matt Dyer. ‘The Mr. Football semifinalists, the (Sam) Pickett kid, is an exceptional athlete. I like the way we competed with them early on through most of the early first half. We moved the ball well and moved the chains early and kept the clock running, and defensively we made them continue to huddle up and not give up explosive plays.”

Dyer continued, “About midway through the second quarter they started to pull away with their speed and athleticism. That first series, where we went three and out with negative yardage plays started a bad sequence of events for us. After we punted the ball, they scored on an explosive play to go up a couple scores, and I made the mistake of putting our backup freshman quarterback in a bad situation. We liked the look we had to complete some quick game and RPOs, and it led to two straight defensive touchdowns. That was my fault.”