Marian gets set to run a play during Friday's loss to Williams Valley at Stan Dakosty Field at Men of Marian Stadium (Photo by Leroy Boyer).

HOMETOWN — The focus was on the field Friday night for the Williams Valley football team.

The picture was abundantly clear:

The Vikings are still a really good football team.

Brady Shomper threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more, Fletcher Thompson rushed for 122 yards and a score and the Williams Valley defense forced four turnovers as the Vikings rolled past Marian 56-10.

The Vikings (7-1, 6-1 Blue) scored on eight of their nine possessions and compiled 453 yards of total offense en route to the Schuylkill-Colonial Blue Division victory at Stan Dakosty Field at Men of Marian Stadium.

“They’re a poised group,” Williams Valley interim head coach Ben Ancheff said. “We have good senior leadership and a lot of kids in that locker room that have been around.

“They did a good job focusing on what they could control and that’s playing football.”

The Vikings’ dominance can be broken down into three areas.

First, Williams Valley controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, the quintet of Brayden Archer, Koen Zilinski, Robbie Hoffman, Shawn Romberger and Camron Green cleared holes for the Williams Valley ballcarriers all night long as the Vikings rushed for 261 yards and averaged 9.7 yards per carry.

Thompson broke off a 38-yard run on his first carry and finished with 11 carries for 122 yards. His 8-yard TD run in the second quarter gave Williams Valley a 28-3 halftime lead.

Defensively, the front four of Bryce Zilinski, Eli Weiss, Camron Green and Romberger held Marian to 99 yards rushing and 156 total yards. The Williams Valley defense had six tackles for loss and eight more running plays of 1 or 0 yards.

Marian’s leading rusher, Rory Dixon, was contained to 35 yards on 16 carries.

“It wasn’t a good matchup for us,” Marian head coach Billy O’Gurek said. “We’re undersized up front. They’re tough kids but the size and strength they have … Guys like Camron Green, Romberger, they’re experienced players and they just gave us our hands full up front.”

Second, Williams Valley’s offense was a perfect balance of pass and run.

Shomper was 7-of-8 for 192 yards and three scores while rushing for 57 yards and touchdowns of 1 and 34 yards.

He spread the ball around to all his receivers, with Evan Achenbach hauling in three passes for 52 yards and a touchdown, Bryce Zilinski having two catches for 87 yards and a TD, Colin Crisswell having one catch for 46 yards and Blazer Lords catching an 8-yard touchdown.

Bryce Zilinski’s touchdown was a 50-yard score one play after the Vikings stuffed Marian on a fourth-and-1 play at midfield on the opening play of the second quarter.

The catch was the first-ever varsity reception for the 6-foot-3, 220-pound senior, who was moved this week from offensive tackle to tight end and changed jerseys from No. 65 to No. 35. He added a 37-yard catch in the second half.

“We had an injury last week. Evan Kandybowski, our tight end, went down,” Ancheff said. “We were looking around and Bryce played tight end two years ago when we had Alex (Achenbach) in the backfield. He was our edge guy.

“We’re like, ‘Hey, let’s put him back out there.’ We have a lot of depth on the line so we made that happen. He played great today.

“I honestly didn’t think he was going to catch any of those passes. He has good hands, but I didn’t think we were going to throw it to him.”

Ancheff credited long-time assistant coach Paul Herb for his play-calling Friday and calling the pass play to Bryce Zilinski.

“Herbie did a great job calling the game,” Ancheff said. “He called it out that we’re going to run a play-action pass here and it went. We hit it twice. It was a nice play for us.

“Blessed to have Paul Herb, coaching for 40 years, someone that was a quarterback himself and has called plays in the past. It was an easy transition there for Herbie.”

Third was turnovers.

Williams Valley forced a punt on Marian’s first possession but muffed the punt, with the Colts’ Jah Bushati recovering at the Vikings’ 23-yard line. The Williams Valley defense held, and Bushati gave Marian a 3-0 lead with a 35-yard field goal.

After that, however, it was Marian miscues that set up the Williams Valley offense.

Trevon Bair’s interception in the second quarter led to Achenbach’s touchdown, while Achenbach picked off a pass right before halftime.

The Colts then fumbled on back-to-back plays in the third quarter, with Shomper and Bair recovering deep in Marian territory.

Bair scored on a 3-yard run four plays after the first fumble to make it 42-3. Shomper then connected with Lords for an 8-yard score one play after the second fumble to up the lead to 49-3.

The loss was the third straight for Marian (5-3, 4-3 Blue) after a 5-0 start. The Colts played without two-way starters Rocco Griguoli and Jacob Tom, who were out due to injury.

“It was like anything that could go wrong did go wrong there for a stretch,” O’Gurek said. “But it still doesn’t excuse our performance. Our effort was lacking at times.

“We just have to flush it. That was a grind. We just played three top 10 teams in Class AA. We just have to get our guys back healthy, get ready for Pine Grove and try to get win No. 6.”

Marian reached the end zone in the fourth quarter with a 10-play, 65-yard drive. Dixon’s 3-yard run made it 49-10.

Williams Valley’s JVs accounted the game’s final score as Cole Hubler raced around the end for a 29-yard TD.

It all added up to a convincing victory for the Vikings.

“They got after the ball today,” Ancheff said. “I couldn’t be more prouder of them today. They did great.”

Game Summary

Williams Valley 56, Marian 10

WV (7-1, 6-1)             7          21        21        7  —    56

Mar (5-3, 4-3)             3          0          0          7  —    10

Mar — FG Bushati 35

WV — Shomper 1 run (Smeltz kick)

WV — B. Zilinski 50 pass from Shomper (Smeltz kick)

WV — Achenbach 5 pass from Shomper (Smeltz kick)

WV — Thompson 8 run (Smeltz kick)

WV — Shomper 34 run (Smeltz kick)

WV — Bair 3 run (Smeltz kick)

WV — Lords 8 pass from Shomper (Smeltz kick)

Mar — Dixon 3 run (Bushati kick)

WV — Hubler 29 run (Smeltz kick)

Team Statistics

                                    WV              Mar

First Downs                15                 9

Rushes-Yards              27-261          30-99

Passes                          7-8-0            7-10-2

Passing Yards             192               57

Total Yards                 453               156

Fumbles/Lost              1-1                2-2

Penalties                      3-10              5-30

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Williams Valley — Thompson 11-122, Shomper 5-57, Hubler 4-52, Bair 3-28, D. Weiss 3-3, Chevy Green 1-(-1). Marian — Dixon 16-35, Price 7-28, Kotsko 2-25, Tirpak 2-4, Ashfield 2-4, Koslop 1-3

PASSING: Williams Valley —- Shomper 7-8-0, 192. Marian —- Tirpak 7-10-2, 57.

RECEIVING: Williams Valley — B. Zilinski 2-87, Achenbach 3-51, Crisswell 1-46, Lords 1-8. Marian — Price 5-45, Dixon 2-12.

INTERCEPTIONS: Williams Valley — Bair, Achenbach