Macon rolls past Mark Twain in district opener to earn rematch with South Shelby

CENTER, Mo. — The chilly night got a little cooler for Macon football coach Van Vanatta after his team’s 37-0 victory over Mark Twain Friday night.

The long-time coach received a cooler of water poured over his head in the middle of Mark Twain’s field as the Class 2 District 4 opening victory was also his 100th coaching win.

Now it’s a quick turnaround for Macon (3-7), which advances to the district semifinals for a rematch with Clarence Cannon Conference foe South Shelby, which doubled up the Tigers 42-21 just two weeks ago. The top-seeded Cardinals received a first-round bye.

“We have a 24-hour rule, so we’re going to sit back and enjoy this one,” Vanatta said. “But just to get a district win … nobody expected us to really do much this year. But we’ve got another week of football and that was our goal. But we’ve got our work cut out for us because we know what South Shelby is all about.”

While it was only Macon’s third win of the season, it is an improvement over last year’s 0-10 mark and Vanatta’s young team was led by a freshman quarterback who ended Mark Twain’s season at 2-8.

Talen Holman took over the offense midway through the season, and after opening with four losses, the Tigers are now 3-3 with Holman running the show.

Following a first quarter interception by the Macon defense, Holman started the scoring with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Javen Ellis. Mark Twain fumbled on its next possession and Ian Marshall scored from 3 yards out to put Macon up 13-0 early in the second quarter.

On Macon’s next possession, Mark Twain’s defense committed multiple personal fouls to help move Macon into the red zone and Holman tossed his second touchdown pass from 8 yards out to Ryder Lewis. Hagan Ritter tacked on a late second quarter field goal and Macon took at 23-0 lead into the half.

The third quarter was more of the same as Holman heaved a 43-yard touchdown pass to Aven Ulhorn on the fourth play of the quarter, and on the next Macon possession, Holman scrambled for an 8-yard touchdown run to make it 37-0.

Vanatta said the play of Holman and several other underclassmen gives Macon some promise for the future, although they don’t want their season to end next week.

“(Holman) was tearing it up on JV, so we moved our other quarterback to wide receiver and that has worked out real well,” he said. “These guys are building the program back up.”

First half penalties and turnovers were too much for Mark Twain to overcome. Tigers coach Mark Epperson loses 10 seniors and knows he has to build back the numbers to get the Tiger program back on track.

“I thought we were moving the ball well, but with three turnovers and penalties, you get behind the sticks like that and it becomes a problem,” Epperson said. “We lose some really good seniors, but we’ve got some guys stepping up hopefully next year and we’ll see what else we have.”