Mclean Tops Marshall

The momentum swung towards McLean at the end of the first half and Brendan Griffin gave the Highlanders the lead for good, returning the opening kick off of the second half 96 yards for a touchdown to beat the Marshall Statesmen 13-7 in their homecoming game.

With the score tied at seven and time winding down in the first half, Marshall drove inside the five yard line and seemed poised to take a lead into halftime. But the McLean defense dominated the line of scrimmage and forced the Statesmen to rush in to try a last second field goal attempt. Having previously spent their timeouts, the Statesmen could not stop the clock and failed to get the snap off before time expired.

Riding high after the defensive stand, McLean scored the first time they touched the ball in the new half, and a nine-minute fourth-quarter drive swallowed any chance of a Statesmen come back.

The Highlanders got on the board first when quarterback J.D. Oldenburg connected with a receiver on a short pass, who then slipped a tackle and sprinted nearly the length of the field for the score. Joshua Huson connected on the extra-point attempt to make the score 7-0. On the ensuing drive the Statesmen replied in kind, with quarterback Stephen Gooding finding Steve Friend over the middle. Friend broke away from his defender and left the Highlander defensive backs in his wake as he headed for pay dirt. William Blakely added the extra-point to knot the score at seven and set the state for Griffin’s early second-half dramatics.

Oldenburg completed 10 of 16 passes for 113 yards on the night, while McLean running back William Corey carried the ball 25 times for 111 yards. Erik Smith added 12 rushes for 35 yards.

Receivers Thomas Haffey, Neal Gillies, Griffin and Smith contributed 27, 14, 24 and 48 yards respectively for the Highlanders. Marshall’s Brandon Wallace lead the Statesmen on the ground with 51 yards on 22 carries, while Gooding completed five of 11 passes for 96 yards. Jacob Ordoff caught two passes for 23 yards while Friend finished the day with 61 yards on two receptions, including the touchdown. Blakely caught one ball for 12 yards.