Marcos roll past West Prairie in 8-man playoffs

POLO – Before Polo’s first-round Illinois 8-Man Football Association playoff game on Oct. 27, Marcos coach Ted Alston challenged his players to reach their potential.

The Marcos wasted no time doing that, scoring on all five first-half possessions in a 40-16 victory over West Prairie.

“The challenge was to play up to our potential every day, every practice, every game,” senior quarterback Brock Soltow said. “We haven’t hit our top potential yet this season, and he told us after our walk-through today that we all need to be more prepared and to be who we are on the field, because we have the potential to be what we were last year, playing up to West Central in that semifinal game. We need to show as a team what we can be.”

Soltow had a hand in all 40 points for Polo, rushing for four scores, catching a TD pass from Tyler Merdian and either rushing, throwing or catching all five two-point conversions.

Polo (8-2) set the tone from the start. The defense forced three-and-outs on two of the first three West Prairie possessions, then Soltow capped a pair of seven-play drives with scoring runs of 7 and 5 yards for a 16-0 lead with less than 11 minutes into the game.

The Marcos’ third drive was started by a 41-yard run by Delo Fernandez, then Soltow ran in from 14 yards for a 24-0 lead less than a minute into the second quarter.

“It was an amazing start, and that was big for us. It set the tone for what was going to happen the rest of the game,” Fernandez said. “Our line did amazing, Every single one of them went all-out and really blocked well.”

The Cyclones (6-4) got their first first down of the game on the next drive, but Polo recovered a fumble after a sack on the next third down, and Soltow leaped and reached over a Cyclones defender to reel in a 21-yard touchdown catch on fourth-and-8 about 1 1/2 minutes later.

West Prairie put together a couple of first downs on the next drive, but ended up punting after a Soltow tackle for loss. Soltow then outran the Cyclone defense for a 76-yard TD with 2:37 left in the first half to extend the lead to 40-0 and set up the running clock for the entire second half.

“Our offensive line started off pretty good, getting after it every play, and with Delo blocking too, we were strong. Every play we were gaining 5 yards it seemed like, and that’s a great feeling,” Soltow said. “On that long touchdown, Delo had a great block right off the end, and then Landen [Brooks] hooked their end and it popped open. I heard footsteps, and felt a kid dive at my legs; I almost tripped, but I made it to the end zone. It felt good going up 40-0 and starting the running clock for the second half.”

Soltow ran for 156 yards before the break, and Fernandez added 77 yards on the ground.

None of the Polo starters played in the second half, and still the Marcos took up the entire third quarter with a 12-play drive.

West Prairie got a couple of cosmetic touchdowns in the fourth quarter: a 9-yard run by Xavier Hilton and a 2-yard run by Austin Nelson.

Nelson finished with 115 yards on 14 carries, and Hilton had 37 yards on 16 rushes. But the Polo defense held the Cyclones to 41 total yards in the first half to help build the insurmountable lead.

“Coach [Ted] Alston told us that the front four was going to win us this game,” Soltow said. “If we had pressure up front, it was going to be huge for our defense – and we had pressure up front the whole time. We looked pretty good up front, and those guys won us the game.”

“It feels amazing to come out here and accomplish something like this,” Fernandez said. “They’re a really good team, and they’re disciplined, and it feels great to get the win. It’s big to just get us into the playoff mindset, battling the cold and the elements. You’ve got to ramp it up, and we did that tonight.”