Davon Marion has already exceeded expectations in his first season at the helm of the Oak Hill football program. He doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Under Marion, the Red Devils have returned to the postseason for the first time since 2018 when they were in Class AA. To keep their season alive the Red Devils will need to topple a familiar foe on the road in Princeton. But despite arriving ahead of schedule, Marion’s made it clear his team isn’t satisfied with just making the postseason.
“We believe in ourselves and we believe in everything that we’re doing as a program so our kids are gonna run right in high and confident,” Marion said. “They understand that we’re four games away from our ultimate goal. We might be a year ahead of schedule, but these kids want it and they understand the task at hand. And some of these kids on both teams know one another and text with each other and things like that. So they know what’s in front of us, but they’re prepared and they’re ready to showcase what they can do. We don’t get talked about like some of these other teams and our kids want some of that. And the best way to get some of it is to go take it so that’s what we plan on doing.”
It’s not the first time Oak Hill and Princeton have matched up this season with the Tigers winning the regular season matchup between the two teams 42-28 in Princeton on Sept. 8. But the games between the squads are generally competitive with Princeton taking last year’s matchup 20-17 in triple overtime.
The task this time around will again be finding a way to slow a Tiger team that’s hit its stride on offense with a 1,000-yard receiver in Dom Collins, a 1,000-yard rusher in Marquel Lowe and a 2,000-yard passer in Chance Barker. The Red Devils held Collins to a season-low 36 yards but yielded 220 total yards to Lowe in the loss.
Containing the explosive plays is the goal.
“I’m just trying to really understand what they’re trying to accomplish with their offense,” Marion said. “They do a lot. Coach (Keith) Taylor and his staff do a great job at moving their best players around to find ways to get them the ball and we’re just trying to plan for that. You know, we hope to show them a bunch of different looks on offense and defense that possibly they haven’t seen on tape. And it’s all about execution for us. It’s not about them. It’s about us, just playing our game handling our business and you know, showing what we really can do. We believe that in the first game, several things didn’t go our way that possibly could have and it changed the outcome of the game. We were down pretty bad after the University loss, but this is a game that our kids want. And we’re coming in prepared and ready to take it over.
“We don’t want to let them get as many splash plays as they did the first meeting. There’s talent everywhere on that roster and just trying to contain what we can, we know who their two top dogs are even though the other kids are talented. So we’re trying to game plan for them and hopefully we can make someone else beat us. Marquel did a number on us the first go round and we’re accounting for him a little better this time. I Dominick, he’s gonna make his plays and get his yards and catches but we just hope to limit it and get them on the ground. That’s the biggest thing I don’t think we tackled well in space the first time we played them and we know I said it today in practice, we know that they’re gonna make some big plays. We just have to limit them.”
Marion has history with Princeton, having served as the team’s defensive coordinator the last half decade before accepting the Oak Hill job this past offseason. Having coached many of the contributors on Princeton’s sideline, there’s a school of thought that he might have some insight to help in Saturday’s showdown, but he doesn’t agree with that.
“Honestly, I don’t because the offseason changes kids and they’re a year older and more experienced and like I said, their offseason program I’ve been a part of it is really good in the weight room and conditioning aspect and kids change,” Marion said. “You know how it goes kids change and I do know enough about the roster to help but at the end of the day, it’s our kids versus their kids. And it’s really a battle of wills who wants it more and who’s gonna do the fundamentals – block and tackle. That’s what this game will come down to who’s willing to make that extra block and who’s willing to make tackles in space so I think it helps a little bit but not really kids grow and change throughout the whole offseason.”
Oak Hill is led by its own 1,000-yard passer in Malachi Lewis and 1,000-yard rusher in J.D. Mauritz but is unfamiliar with the playoff scene. That’s where Marion comes into play. On top of being a part of Princeton’s last three playoff runs, he was a standout prep player at Mount Hope during playoff runs in the late 2000s. He’s using his experiences to help prepare his players for their first postseason action.
“The biggest thing is just have fun with it,” Marion said. “Football is still a game. So you want to go out there and have fun and of course winning is just a ton of fun, but just have fun with it and live in this moment. Don’t take this moment right here for granted. The seniors they’ll never get a chance to play in the high school football playoffs again If they go out and squander this moment away and the underclassmen, you don’t know what next year looks like. So take advantage of the situation you’re in right now. Live in the moment. Have fun with it. At the end of the day it is still a game and just live for this moment right here. Play in this moment, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”