Tuesday Morning Quarterback: A Marked Man

You know the guy who's the life of the party? The one with the hottest clothes, the hottest girls, the hottest cars? Mr. Everything? The guy who can play tennis with his right hand while keeping score with his left hand and knitting an afghan with his feet?

Well, Duane Marks is the guy who gets that guy his coffee.

It's an unenviable position, really, backing up the best football player in the county. Everyone wants to be Beyonce. Nobody wants to be the fly girl.

So it was easy to understand why Marks was smiling on Friday night after the Bears' 48-17 win over Lecanto.

For perhaps the only time in his life, he got more carries than all-everything running back DuJuan Harris. He gained more all-purpose yards than Harris. And he scored just as many touchdowns.

For one night, Marks was Jon Bon Jovi, and Harris was Richie Sambora.

In the first quarter, while lined up at H-Back, Marks found himself wide open down a seam in the Lecanto defense. He hauled in a perfect pass from quarterback Chase Walker and ran untouched into the end zone for a 46-yard touchdown reception. It was the first touchdown of his varisty career, but his second wasn't far behind. On his first carry of the game, in the third quarter, he broke off a 26-yard touchdown run.

He would carry the ball six more times, including runs of 31, 11 and 21 yards, and finished with 96 yards on seven carries.

Marks finished the game with 142 yards from scrimmage.

"It feels good," Marks said. "I like running the ball like that. I wish I could do it more."

Thing is, Marks understands that he's got as much chance of replicating Friday night's performance as a Dave Matthews cover band has of playing at Red Rocks. Even though Harris touched the ball just six times on offense, sitting down for much of the second half as Central's second-stringers took over, he was very much electric. Five of his six carries went for at least 10 yards. Two went for touchdowns.

The highlight was a 34-yard run in the second quarter in which he appeared to be stuffed for no gain by a swarm of Central defenders, only to break out of the pack and reverse field.

"It's just an athlete making a play," Central coach Cliff Lohrey said. "He just kept his legs moving."

Harris finished with 133 yards on six carries, for a cool 21.2 yard per carry average.

But on a day in which the entire Central team dominated, Marks was the story.