CMB holds off Drake Ferch rally

MAXWELL — Parker Murphy’s 36-yard touchdown pass was supposed to be enough to put West Marshall away. It should have been the clincher that moved CMB to 5-0 on the season. The touchdown that put the Raiders in the driver’s seat for a district title.

And it was. But not without some drama first.

Murphy’s pass to Kyle Zeiser gave CMB a 23-6 advantage with 8:36 to go in the fourth quarter Friday night, but all-state running back Drake Ferch did not go away as he led the defending district champions to two late touchdowns and a near shocking win in Maxwell.

The Raiders, however, recovered, made one last stop on defense late in the game and downed the Trojans, 23-21, on homecoming.

“We learned a lesson tonight,” CMB coach Rob Luther said. “We now know we can’t let up off the gas. But we got it done. And we’ll learn from this.”

Ferch did it all for West Marshall. He finished with 166 rushing yards, had a 69-yard touchdown pass to his brother Dalton and also returned a kickoff 83 yards for a score. Throw in two catches for 27 yards, and he almost single handedly spoiled CMB’s celebration.

“Drake Ferch is an outstanding football player,” Luther said. “But we let him do some things tonight that we can’t allow. That has to get stopped. We had some bad tackling, and I certainly did not like the last five or six minutes of the game.”

The last five or six minutes of the game featured Ferch’s touchdown pass to Dalton Ferch on a halfback toss and also was when he returned the kickoff 83 yards. Before that, he also scored on an 11-yard run in the first quarter.

But while Ferch was virtually a one-man show for the Trojans, several Raiders made big plays in helping CMB remain unbeaten.

Murphy began the game with a 53-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage. His touchdown pass late was big, and he also had a 37-yard field goal late in the second quarter that ended up being the difference in the game.

“We battled adversity well tonight,” Murphy said. “We took it for granted that we had it won. And we can’t do that. It’s an awesome feeling though to get this back. They were the only team we did not beat last year, and we have had this game circled for awhile.”

Murphy finished with 143 rushing yards and 100 passing yards and two touchdowns. But the Raiders also got a lift from backup running back Josh O’Hara, who finished with 112 yards on eight carries.

“He’s got fresh legs when he comes in there, and he ran hard and stepped up today,” Murphy said.

The win for CMB sets up another showdown this Friday, this time with unbeaten Bondurant-Farrar, which easily defeated PCM on Friday.

“Bondurant-Farrar is a really good team, and it’s a good rivalry,” Murphy said. “It’ll be a tough game. We need to shore up our run defense, and we can’t have any mistakes.”

Murphy’s touchdown early in the game made it 6-0 CMB, but Ferch’s 11-yard scamper with four minutes to go in the first quarter tied the game.

CMB scored twice late in the second quarter to go up 16-6 at halftime. The Raiders capped off an 80-yard drive with an Ethan Schmidt 11-yard touchdown run. Then, following a Drake Ferch missed field goal, the Raiders went 60 yards in 30 seconds as Murphy drilled a 37-yard kick as time expired in the half.

“That was a big kick by Murphy,” Luther said.

The 60-yard drive featured two big runs by O’Hara and then a crucial pass interference call on West Marshall.

“We just called two simple plays on that drive,” Murphy said. “The linemen made good blocks, and we managed to get some points on the board.”

West Marshall began the second half with a 13-play drive that ended in no points. They turned the ball over on downs but got it back minutes later after a fumble by CMB on an option pitch. However, the Trojans eventually punted, giving the ball back to CMB at the Raiders’ own 2-yard line.

The Raiders then responded with a 98-yard drive that started in the third and went into the fourth. Murphy hit Schmidt for 13 yards on a big third down and eight and then CMB (5-0, 3-0) got a 15-yard run from Murphy, a 19-yard spurt by O’Hara before eventually capping the drive off with a 36-yard touchdown pass to Zeiser on a fourth and 14.

“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot with stupid penalties, but we hadn’t called that play to Kyle all night,” Murphy said. “We was open on the crossing route. It was a good play.”

An excited crowd was tamed just seconds later as Ferch answered CMB’s big touchdown with an 83-yard score off the kickoff.

Then, following a CMB punt by David Kolpin, West Marshall had the ball on its own 1-yard line. They were forced to go 99 yards and did just that as Dalton Ferch made a 30-yard catch and then was on the receiving end of Drake Ferch’s halfback pass that covered 69 yards and the touchdown. That made it 23-21 with 3:18 to play in the game.

“Drake Ferch is a D-1 player,” Murphy said. “There is no doubt in my mind about that. He runs hard, runs tough and has great vision.”

The game got even more interesting after that as CMB went three and out on its next possession.

West Marshall had the ball at its own 22-yard line with 2:23 to play in the game. And all the Trojans needed was a field goal to win.

The drive began with two straight incomplete passes — the second one would have been a first down but was dropped by Dalton Ferch. Dalton Ferch made a 9-yard catch on third and 10 but an attempted pass on fourth and one hit the grass, and the Raiders escaped with a win.

Schmidt also had a nice game on the ground as he finished with 61 yards rushing and a touchdown and also had 26 yards receiving. All-state wide receiver Dylan Hansen made just two catches for 31 yards but had a 16-yard run as well.

“We did a good job of running the football tonight, and we had to,” Luther said. “West Marshall wouldn’t give us the deep ball. Josh O’Hara is a change of pace back. He looked good. And when he looks good, we’ll get him the ball.”

The CMB defense was led by Marcus Schmidt’s 11 tackles, while Murphy added 10. Ben Garrison had eight tackles, while Kolpin added six. Logan Gibbs also had a sack for the Raiders.

Luther said it was too early to start talking district title, but this win put’s the Raiders in the driver’s seat for their first championship.

“Next week is a big game, and there is still a lot of district football left,” Luther said.

CMB 23, West Marshall 21

Score by quarters
WM 6 0 0 15 — 21
CMB 6 10 0 7 — 23

Scoring summary
First quarter
CMB: Parker Murphy 53 run (kick failed), 11:11.
WM: Drake Ferch 11 run (kick failed), 4:00.
Second quarter
CMB: Ethan Schmidt 16 run (Murphy kick), 2:58.
CMB: Murphy 37 field goal, 0:00.
Fourth quarter
CMB: Murphy 36 pass to Kyle Zeiser (Murphy kick), 8:36.
WM: Drake Ferch 83 kickoff return (Drake Ferch run), 8:22.
WM: Drake Ferch 69 pass to Dalton Ferch (Drake Ferch kick), 3:18.

Team Stats WM CMB
First Downs 13 20
Rushes-Yards 40-209 45-335
Passing Yards 140 100
Passes-Att-Comp-Int 14-5-0 17-8-0
Total Offense 349 435
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2
Penalties-Yards 7-58 6-54
Sacked-Yards 2-9 0-0

Individual Statistics
Rushing — West Marshall: Drake Fertch 26-166, Dalton Ferch 4-24, Tanner Stalzer 2-24, Tyson Streeter 1-2, Braydn Beals 7-(-7). CMB: Parker Murphy 23-143, Josh O'Hara 8-112, Ethan Schmidt 10-61, Dylan Hansen 1-16, Josh Benton 3-3.
Passing — West Marshall: Beals 4-12-0-71, Drake Ferch 1-2-0-69. CMB: Murphy 7-15-0-100.
Receiving — West Marshall: Dalton Ferch 3-113, Drake Ferch 2-27. CMB: Josh Zeiser 2-42, Hansen 2-31, Schmidt 3-26.