alem’s Brandon Kana runs against Marlington on Friday at Sebo Stadium.

SALEM –With an opportunity to play for a share of the Eastern Buckeye Conference title next week and an appearance in the postseason playoffs, the Salem Quakers needed to make sure that they took care of business against the EBC’s last-place team in the Marlington Dukes.

The Quakers outlasted the Dukes in an offensive explosion 61-39, improving to 6-3 on the year and 3-1 in the EBC. It also sets up a huge game against their arch-rival, the West Branch Warriors, the EBC leader in the West Branch, next week.

“A win is a win. There are no bad wins,” Quakers head coach Ron Johnson said. “We have a lot of things to work on. We have a big game next week. But I think our kids played well tonight.”

“It went pretty well. We had a bit of a rough start on defense, but we cleaned stuff up,” senior quarterback Cletis Monroy said. “We were pretty confident coming into the game and what we are doing offensively.”

With the loss, the Dukes fall to 3-6 on the year and 0-4 in the league. It is the second consecutive win for the Quakers in the series with the Dukes.

The Quakers wasted no time in denting the scoreboard as receiver Bairon Exline threw a pass on an end-around play to quarterback Cletis Monroy for 20 yards on just the Quakers’ second play of the game. That gave them a 7-0 lead at the 11:16 mark of the first quarter,

The Quakers scored on nine of their 10 offensive possessions in the contest, with just the last possession as time expired keeping them from finding the end zone again. And they needed just about all of those scoring possessions to answer the Dukes on the night.

The two teams combined for 967 total yards in the game, with the Quakers accumulating 493 versus the Dukes’ 474. The Quakers led the Dukes in rushing the ball 348-178, but the Dukes led the Quakers in the air 296-145.

“We took care of the ball. If you have that many snaps and that many guys touching the ball with no turnovers, that is where we start in respecting the football. We scored on every possession. That is a good thing,” Johnson said.

Following Monroy’s touchdown to open the contest, he scored on a 39-yard run with 6:54 left in the first quarter, followed by an 8-yard run from Brandon Kana to extend their lead to 20-6 at the 4:00 mark of the first quarter. They added one more score in the opening stanza as Monroy connected with Exline on a 16-yard pass with just 41 seconds remaining to stake them to a 27-6 advantage.

Following an impressive 80-yard drive by Marlington for a touchdown, the Quakers answered with a 1-yard run by Kana with 4:44 left before halftime. The Dukes drove to the Quakers’ 5-yard line with just 4 seconds remaining in the half, but a pass from the Dukes quarterback, Tyler Walder, was broken up in the endzone to preserve the Quakers’ 34-13 lead at intermission.

The second half proved to be a defense optional affair as both teams combined to score on six consecutive possessions. Every time the Dukes scored, the Quakers answered as Kana raced 3 yards at the 5:18 mark of the third quarter, followed by a 52-yard pass from Monroy to Owen Davison to make it 47-27 in favor of the Quakers at the close of the third quarter.

“We had to keep the pedal down, and our kids did a great job in responding every time they scored; we answered,” Johnson said.

Monroy tacked on his third touchdown on the night at the 6:48 mark of the fourth quarter to make it 54-33. Then, following an interception by the Quakers, Kana scored on a 24-yard run on the next offensive play. That boosted the Quakers to a 61-33 advantage before the Dukes scored a late touchdown to reach the final 61-39 margin.

“We played a lot of guys tonight with senior night and everything. It is hard to keep your focus when you get up early like that, but I’m sure they will respond with a great week of practice,” Johnson commented on the Dukes’ second-half push.

The Marlington Dukes will wrap up the season next Friday when they host the Alliance Aviator. The Quakers will host their rival West Branch next Friday.

MA: 6-7-14-12–39

SA: 27-7-13-14–61

SCORING

SA – Cletis Monroy 20 pass from Bairon Exline (Gerson Samayoa kick)

SA – Monroy 1 run (kick failed)

M – Bryce Jones 53 pass from Tyler Walder (kick failed)

SA – Brandon Kana 8 run (Samayoa kick)

SA – Exline 16 pass from Monroy (Samayoa kick)

M – Caden Dine 3 run (Talon Cyders kick)

SA – Kana 1 run (Samayoa kick)

M – Cole Jones 22 pass from Walder (Cyders kick)

SA – Kana 24 run (Samayoa kick)

M – Malcum Salyers 13 pass from Walder (Cyders kick)

SA – Owen Davidson 52 pass from Monroy (kick failed)

M – Walder 1 run (kick blocked)

SA – Monroy 3 run (Samayoa kick)

SA – Kana 24 run (Samayoa kick)

M – Jacob Rose 9 run (run failed)

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MA SA

First downs 26 22

Total Yards 474 493

Rushes-yards 45-178 32-348

Passing 296 145

Comp-Att-Int 20-38-1 7-8-0

Punts 2-27.5 0-0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 7-65 10-65

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INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING– MARLINGTON, Caden Dine 28-104; SALEM, Brandon Kana 21-185, Cletis Monroy 6-135

PASSING– MARLINGTON, Tyler Walder 20-37-296-3-1 ; SALEM, Cletis Monroy 6-7-125-3-0

RECEIVING– MARLINGTON, Cole Jones 10-157, Bryce Jones 3-70; SALEM, Owen Davidson 1-52, Joshua Mayhew 2-42, Bairon Exline 2-26, Cletis Monroy 1-20