Marlette finishes 5-4

The Marlette saw their playoff hopes vanish a week earlier but rallied to finish on a strong night Friday night when they crushed non-league opponent Armada 59-26. The Red Raiders end up 5-4 overall, one win shy of the required six to make the MHSAA play-offs.
“It was a great way to end the season,” said Coach Denny Lester. “The kids had a lot of fun out there and we were able to get out to a fast start. We mixed the run and pass up well to keep them off balance. All of the players played a lot and they all contributed, which was nice.”
Marlette scored three times in the first quarter. Ethan McKenney broke free on a 46 yard scoring run to open the scoring before Hunter McGinnis connected with Isaac Dale on a 51 yard scoring strike. Marlette responded to Armada’s first TD when McKenney galloped 36 yards for his second score of the contest.
McKenney would account for two more scores, on touchdown passes of 36 and 37 yards respectively to McGinnis and Dale before halftime to run the Red Raiders lead to 34-13 at the intermission. Brett Knox (one yard dive), Tyler Ladd (two yard run), Jarod Lentz (five yard run) and Zak Chappel one yard run) all scored second half TDs for the Red Raiders.
Marlette amassed 335 yards on the ground and another 159 yards of passing in the game. McKenney, who completed 5 of 16 passes for 108 yards, led the Red Raiders ground attack with 140 yards on just seven carries. Chorben Chisolm had 68 yards on 11 attempts and Chappel finished with 64 yards on eight tries. Dale had two receptions for 88 yards and two touchdowns to pace the Marlette passing game while McGinnis had one for 36 yards and a score. Defensively, Knox led the team with 8.5 tackles including seven solo take downs, Ladd had six tackles and Dale finished with 5.5 including five solos.