Marion High School - Marion, Iowa

How many touchdowns did he score? Storla lost count

Colton Storla spun the wrong way on a "398 Dipsy-Do" pass pattern in practice Monday, but Marion Coach Tony Perkins just smiled and joked about it.

That's what happens when you score seven touchdowns in a ballgame. The coach cuts you some slack.

Storla rushed for seven TDs for the Indians in their 58-35 victory over Anamosa last Friday. That tied Carey Bender's school record for the most touchdowns in one game, set in 1989, and broke Bender's mark for most rushing TDs in one game (5).

When Bender scored his seven touchdowns, he ran for five TDs and caught passes for two other scores. Bender is a football legend at Marion, with his picture on the wall and everything, so matching one of his feats is special.

"Yeah, it's pretty exciting, because I actually know the guy," Storla said after practice.

The whole night was exciting last Friday. It was Storla's 18th birthday, and friends in the crowd at Thomas Park Field sang "Happy Birthday" after every touchdown.

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Storla steams into record book with 7 TDs

Senior Colton Storla gave himself and Marion football fans a birthday to remember.

Storla had a career night on his 18th birthday at Thomas Park Field, tying a Marion school record for touchdowns in a game with seven.

Storla and the rest of the Indian backfield ran for a combined 520 yards as they beat Anamosa in a 3A District 5 game, 58-35, Friday night.

Marion (3-1, 1-1) got back on the winning track after a disappointing 7-0 loss to Western Dubuque last Friday.

“It was more important that we improved (from last week) then it was for us to get to .500 (in the district),” Marion Coach Tony Perkins said.

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Marion blanked by Western Dubuque, 7-0

EPWORTH - There were two ways to look at Western Dubuque's 7-0 win over Marion Friday night.

It was either a case of two lackluster teams unable to muster much offensive firepower. Or it was a rock-em sock-em defensive battle, full of big-time hits in the backfield and pileups in the middle of the line.

Losing Marion Coach Tony Perkins opted for the latter view.

"It was a great high school football game," he said. "And Western Dubuque is a very good football team."

Former Dyersville Beckman and Dubuque Hempstead coach Bob Timmerman, who has a state championship on his record and is still an active volunteer freshman coach after more than 50 years in the business, agreed with Perkins.

"A lot of fans don't like these kinds of games," he said from the Mediacom television booth while doing color commentary on the game. "But I love them. Not a lot of passing, which I never cared for. Pretty much the same basic run-oriented offenses like I used to run.

"And they were really hitting on both sides."

The fact remains that the offensive stats weren't much to write home about.

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Solon escapes Marion for Warrior volleyball title

The young but scrappy Marion volleyball team fought and fought all day Saturday before finally falling short to Solon in the championship match of the 20th annual Washington Warrior tournament.

Short was the name of the game as the Indian girls could not match up with the towering Spartan front line, led by spiker supreme Kelsey Cave.

“Size was a huge difference in the match,” said Marion Coach Roxanne Paulson. “You can’t control height. But defensively, I thought the girls really picked it up.”

And in all Class 3A Wamac Conference finale, 10th-ranked Marion put up a tough effort against eight-ranked Solon.

After losing the first game 25-19, the Indians refused to cave-in to their big-hitting opponents and came back with a 25-20 win.

Despite taking a 14-13 lead in the tiebreaker, the Indians lost service and the match 16-14.

It was an uphill battle for Marion from the start in the all-day, 14-team tourney which featured Metro teams from Jefferson, Linn-Mar, Prairie, Xavier and host Washington.  Following a 15-7 tiebreaker loss to Johnston at the get-go in pool play, they bounced back to knock off North Fayette, 21-8, 21-12, but then fell to Dyersville Beckman, 21-16, 21-10.

The Indians stormed back in championship bracket pairings, however, whipping Class 4A Washington. 25-14, 25-22, and Xavier 18-25, 25-12, 15-12.

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