The Flyers put on a dominating display on Friday morning, beating Jeromesville Hillsdale 74-0 in the Division VII state championship game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.
“There’s nothing more that an athlete or football player would want more in their high school career than to go undefeated throughout high school,” said senior quarterback Justin Knouff. “You’ve got to thank the older guys that did it before us so we can keep the tradition of going undefeated. It’s just something very special that we’ll never forget.”
The Marion Local senior class’ unbeaten run lasted 1,534 days. Their last loss came at the hands of rival Minster in an eighth-grade game on Sept. 24, 2020 at Booster Stadium.
“I honestly don’t remember much of it,” said Flyers senior Victor Hoelscher. “I think we lost by a touchdown. Minster was really good our eighth grade year and they’re really good still. I know we tied New Bremen later that season.”
The COVID-shortened 2020 season was also the last time the Flyers didn’t bring home a state championship trophy, falling to rival New Bremen in the Region 28 final. The following year, the Flyers’ 2021 class showed the current seniors what it took to win a state title, Hoelscher said.
“That senior class was really getting at us that we gotta win, we gotta win, we gotta win,” Hoelscher said. “That (2021 class) really helped us out.”
While they knew what they had in the Class of 2025, said Flyers coach Tim Goodwin, they still had to wait to see significant playing time, just like the classes before them. Kyle Ungruhn, Adam Winner, Ethan Heitkamp and Hoelscher saw playing time as sophomores, but the majority didn’t play until later in their careers, he said.
“(The class didn’t) play that much for how good they are,” Goodwin said. “They had to wait their turn and they were pretty lights out at the JV level two years ago.”
This year’s team was dominant, even when you consider Marion Local’s two decades-long run of success.
Offensively, the Flyers averaged 49 points per game. On the other side of the ball, the Flyers allowed just 49 points the entire season.
Marion Local beat every team it faced this season by 14 or more points, earning 10 shutouts along the way. The only team to come within two touchdowns of the Flyers? Minster — the same group of players that beat them four years ago. The Flyers beat the Wildcats 21-7 on Nov. 22 in the Region 28 championship game.
“For a long time we’ve known that that was going to be a battle and it was,” Goodwin said.
The Flyers set the state record for most points scored in a D-VII state championship game on Friday. In the game, they held Hillsdale to just four first downs, 75 yards of total offense and forced five turnovers. They scored in all three phases of the game.
“That’s probably the best team I’ve ever faced in any sport,” said Hillsdale sophomore quarterback Kael Lewis. “A team like that, that’s what we want to be next year. We’ll use that as motivation to work hard all offseason.”
While the record-breaking Flyers group of 18 seniors are talented, the camaraderie is what sets them apart from other Marion Local senior classes, Goodwin said.
“If they were watching film at 8 a.m, these guys are going to be there at 7:30 just because they like hanging out together,” he said. “You just notice things like that. This class is just different. We’ve never had a class that would do things like that. We’re going to miss them.”
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