As the KHS varsity football team ran out onto the field in front of their cheering fans, they had multiple goals on their mind. To win on their night, the KHS senior night, and at the end be one step closer to finishing their KHS football journey.

A journey that started for Sam Linenbroker, senior, when he was a middle schooler on the sidelines. It started when he watched the formerly KHS seniors perform under the Friday night lights, on their special night. 

“Now I’m that big guy, that senior on the field, it just meant the world to me,” Linenbroker said. “To hear my name called and walk out with my family, it was an extremely special feeling. To play with these teammates, some of whom I’ve been alongside for years, it’s great to look back on.”

On senior night at KHS, the Pioneers (now 4-2) were unable to pick up the win against the Marquette Mustangs (now 6-1), who defeated KHS by a final score of 34-14. The contest was evenly matched throughout the first quarter, when the Mustangs struck first. The Pioneers responded with less than a minute remaining, from a touchdown run by wide receiver Tyler Macon, junior. That left the score at 7-7, with the extra point from Louis Kavanaugh, senior, at the end of the first.

In the second quarter, Marquette went to work, outscoring the Pioneers 19-0 in the quarter along with a three yard touchdown run inside the opening four minutes, then hitting KHS with two 20 plus yard passing touchdowns, resulting in the Mustangs leading 26-7 at the break. 

“At halftime, the talk with Maclin revolved around sticking to our game plan and our rules,” Nathan Hodo, senior, said. “Just to follow our main objectives and keep doing what we’ve been taught.”

The Mustangs continued their offensive dominance after the halftime buzzer, ending up in the end zone on a 53 yard touchdown run. The Pioneers offense struggled to find answers in the second half, with quarterback Louis Kavanaugh constantly swamped in the pocket, and the Marquette defense forcing two interceptions out of him in the second half. 

“Marquette has a lot of big strong guys, who really brought the pressure tonight,” Kavanaugh said. “Credit to them, it was really challenging to make big plays when they were in our faces all night, and we knew before this we had to bring the physicality in this matchup.”

KHS eventually chipped into Marquette’s lead at the end of the third, driving into the red zone, then finishing off with a four yard running touchdown by running back Darius Jones, senior. Jones ended up with 148 yards on 26 carries. 

The fourth quarter brought no scoring from either side, but had multiple first down runs from Kavanaugh, scrambling to get points. Kavanaugh finished with 21 out of 31 pass attempts completed for a total of 160 yards. KHS continuously tried to claw their way back into the game against the 20 point deficit, but Marquette held their ground on defense, with the final score 34-14 in favor of the Mustangs.

KHS will look to rebound next Saturday on the road against McCluer North. Limiting the passing game could be key, after giving up multiple passing plays in this game that led to score. Another way KHS could recuperate could be the return of running back Deion Brown, who’s been sidelined for the past two weeks with an injury. Before his absence Brown had 277 rushing yards, and four touchdown runs combined, in the two previous weeks against Ladue and Hazelwood Central. Kavanaugh said Brown’s absence, while costly, shouldn’t be an excuse to not win games. 

“Darius has stepped up into his role very well, and played a great game for us tonight,” Kavanaugh said. “Both [Deion and Darius] are great players for this team, and have been big for us all year, but there’s nothing that the team can’t do, even with a big player missing.”