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Marietta looks to snap losing skid, plays PHS at 7 p.m. Friday

MIKE MORRISON The Marietta Times Marietta’s Corbin Alkire, left, attempts to break a tackle during a high school football game against Williamstown last week at Don Drumm Stadium.

Perhaps the third time will be the charm for Marietta High School head football coach Jason Schob.

After starting off 2-0, the Tigers have dropped consecutive games to West Virginia opponents and now welcome in Mountain State Athletic Conference member Parkersburg High and second-year head man Mike Byus for a 7 p.m. Friday kickoff at Don Drumm Stadium.

A year ago at Stadium Field, the Big Reds rolled to a 45-10 triumph, but the Tigers won this tilt 49-13 the last time it was played in the Buckeye State.

“We’re going to their home field and you always got a little more comfort level when you are at your own home,” admitted Byus, whose squad is led offensively by Brenton Strange, tailback Tyler Moler and signal-caller Jake Johnson.

“They got players. They just haven’t put it all together yet. I hope they don’t put it together when we get there. I’m more concerned with what we are doing than anyone else on our schedule right now. My focus is fixing what we are doing wrong.”

Marietta led 21-14 late in the third quarter last week at Death Valley before falling to Ripley, 35-21. The Tigers couldn’t get their running attack going as evidenced by 24 rushes for 73 yards. That will be key this week if the Tigers hope to keep Parkersburg’s big-play offense on the sideline. Look for Tony Munos and Kory Science to have expanded roles after carrying once each versus the Vikings.

“Parkersburg is a very good program and very good team,” said Schob, who got a pair of TD runs from Chase Taylor last week and watched Tanner Slack haul in 15 passes for 131 yards from QB Corbin Alkire. “They were missing Strange for the first few weeks and he’s a big addition.

“He’s getting D1 looks for a reason. Their biggest strength is their team speed and they fly to the football. On offense, they have a lot of kids who can hit the home run and make some big plays.”

Stack, who was lost for the season when he suffered a broken leg in last year’s affair at Stadium Field, might get most of the looks in the Tigers’ passing game, but Daniel Long hauled in 40-yard TD catch at Ripley.

“You can’t make mental mistakes, whether that’s turnovers, breakdowns on situations or penalties. We need to play a clean, complete game if we are going to beat Parkersburg,” added Schob, who noted “we’re pretty fortunate right now.

“Even though our record isn’t where we want it to be at this point, we are healthy. That’s rare going into week five being healthy and hopefully that continues.”

PHS is led defensively by Gage Fiore and C.J. Wade, who have combined for 68 total stops. Kionte Peacock has three interceptions and Hayden Morris has two.

“We were close,” Byus said of last week’s loss to Capital. “Three big plays and we missed some tackles and they took it the distance. On the offensive side we just kept imploding when we had opportunities.

“Two or three times we went backwards on our drives because of penalties and mistakes and those are the things we have to fix.”

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