Dixon answers the bell, pulls away late to beat Marengo

DIXON – When Marengo tied the score early in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s Class 4A first-round playoff game, Dixon had the answer.

Carter Kibble returned the ensuing kickoff 43 yards inside the Marengo 35-yard line, and the Dukes scored a touchdown on the next play to ignite a fourth-quarter surge in a 35-14 victory at A.C. Bowers Field.

“Big shout out to Carter Kibble on that return, but that’s what makes a great team,” Dixon’s Eli Davidson said. “Adversity is going to happen, especially in the playoffs. Everybody that’s in the playoffs is good. You’re not going to walk in and just roll somebody, so we came together and we talked about that adversity and we figured out what we needed to change. Then we went out there and did it.”

[ Photos from 4A first-round playoff game, Marengo at Dixon ]

Missed opportunities looked like they would hurt Dixon (9-1). The Dukes had the ball inside the Marengo 35-yard line three times in the first half but failed to convert on fourth down each time.

The Indians (5-5) took advantage. After stopping Dixon on its first two drives of the second half, Marengo moved the ball inside the 15-yard line on a pair of 10-play drives. The first drive was a turnover on downs, but the second ended in a David Lopez 1-yard touchdown run to tie the score 14-14.

“We had to run the ball better, so we changed what we were doing up front. We had to both run the ball and pass the ball,” Lopez said.

That’s when the Dukes kicked it up a notch. After Kibble’s kickoff return, Cullen Shaner connected with Davidson on a 32-yard scoring strike to regain the lead. After a Marengo three-and-out, Dixon drove 56 yards in eight plays, and Tyson Dambman scored on a 3-yard reverse for a 28-14 lead.

“It’s tough, it hurts. We came all that way [to tie it up] and then that happens,” Lopez said. “But it is what it is, and we kept fighting.”

Marengo turned the ball over on downs, and Dixon drove 57 yards in four plays, with Landon Knigge sprinting around the left side for a 23-yard touchdown and a 35-14 lead with 3:20 to play.

“We knew it was our game, and we just had to pull together and work as a team and do the little things to get after it and play like we know we can,” Knigge said.

Knigge, who also ran for a 56-yard score to tie the game 7-7 late in the first quarter, finished with 21 carries for 156 yards.

“They were stuffing [the run] inside, so that’s when we started arc-blocking the D-end. That was the adjustment, and that started getting 5, 10 yards and more,” Knigge said. “We’ve got aggressive guys up front; they’re tough guys, and they did what they do.”

Marengo opened the game with a bang, as Lopez connected with Parker Mandelky for a 54-yard touchdown pass on the fourth play of the game.

“That was the game plan from the get-go, to get up on them early. We wanted to shock them early and get them down a little bit,” Lopez said.

“Coming out in the first half and going ahead right away, going up 7-0, I thought was huge for us. The kids embraced the underdog role,” Marengo coach Paul Forsythe said. “Dixon is a really good football team, hats off to them, but I’m really proud of our guys. The kids gave us all they had, and they gave Dixon everything they possibly could.”

But Dixon’s defense was stout. Other than the long touchdown pass, the Dukes limited Marengo to 59 yards the rest of the first half, 19 coming on a Lopez run as the halftime horn sounded.

The Indians moved the ball on their two drives in the third quarter, but Dixon forced a punt and two turnovers on downs in the fourth quarter to pull away.

“The game plan coming is to stop the run, that’s the main thing that Coach [Tyler] Matteson preaches,” linebacker Jake Whelan said. “Our linemen, especially, played a huge role in allowing me and Eli to make tackles and stuff their run game. We just had a bad first half, we just needed to wake up. When they tied it, that’s when we really put the gas pedal down. Then on defense, we just did our jobs to finish the game.”

Knigge’s first touchdown tied the game with 1:19 left in the first quarter, then Dixon scored on its next possession on a 7-yard TD pass from Shaner to Dambman for a 14-7 lead with 8:34 left in the second quarter. The Dukes took that lead into halftime.

Shaner was 20-for-27 passing for 195 yards and two touchdowns, with Davidson (92 yards) and Dambman (67 yards) both hauling in eight passes; Davidson also had a 17-yard completion to Gabe Rowley on a double-pass.

Lopez was 15-for-31 passing for 142 yards and a touchdown, and also led the Indians with 20 rushes for 67 yards and a score. Gavin Baros rushed for 25 yards on 10 carries, and Mandelky led the receiving corps with six catches for 83 yards.