Teams that play Flower Mound Marcus know exactly what's coming, and they don't like it. "Nobody wants to play (us), nobody wants to play Marcus Marauders," says running back Rufus Mason. In an era of high-flying passing attacks, Marcus runs. In the opening game against Garland, a 33-13 win, the Marauders ran it 49 times, and threw it three. "Pound the ball, pound the ball," is how running back Dagan Newsome describes the offense. That makes it a lot easier for the seniors Mason and Newsome to share the tailback duties -- they both know they're going to get plenty of work. 4th year head coach Bryan Erwin: "If we run the ball 45 times, they're going to get 22, 23 carries a piece. I promise you they're going to be tired at the end of the game." Coach Erwin says that the goal is to get his tailbacks equal carries, to the point where they keep track during games of how many each has. But Newsome and Mason are such good friends that it wouldn't matter to them. "I've known him my whole life," says Newsome, the smaller of the two backs who wears #27. "I've been playing LFA with him since I was 6 years old, so we're really close." "I learn so much from Dagan, reading holes, you know what he does," says Mason, who wears #28 because Adrian Peterson is his favorite player. "I always watch him, see what he does." Just how unselfish are these guys? In that first game, Mason had a long run to set up Marcus for an easy score. The coaches told Newsome to go into the game, but he said "No thanks," and let his teammate get the touchdown. "They sent me in because they thought he was tired -- they called time out," says Newsome. "I was like, Hm, I can't take that away from him, so I told coach, I was like, Coach, put Rufus in; I'll sit out on this one. He got it down there, let him finish it off." "And I would have done the same thing for him," says Mason. "Dagan nah man, that's yours. That's the type of relationship we have." They are Marcus' version of thunder and lightning, and opponents better take cover.
