Nativity coach Pat Mason challenged his defense - and it responded.

The Green Wave limited Marian to just 54 yards in total offense, forced three turnovers, and even scored a touchdown in a 36-0 Schuylkill League victory on Friday.

“I had been upset with how we’ve played on defense this season,” said Mason. “Our kids play fast and physical, but we hadn’t been consistent. I told them all week that I wanted a shutout tonight and they went out and got it.”

Nativity did that despite putting its defense in a hole early in the game. Turnovers on two of the Green Wave’s first three plays gave Marian possession in Nativity territory twice in the opening quarter.

Those two Colt series netted a minus 30 yards in offense and a pair of punts.

“We had some chances early,” said Marian coach Stan Dakosty. “We had a couple of big interceptions and nice returns, and we didn’t capitalize on them.

“When you get opportunities against a really good football team, you have to take advantage of them and we didn’t do that.”

Mason said the two defensive stops - where the Colts started at the Nativity 47 and 15 yard lines - were huge for his team.

“Hats off to our defense, especially early in the game,” said Mason. “They were two big stops that allowed us to stay tied until our offense got going.”

Once the Green Wave (3-1) offense did get going, it turned the game from a scoreless tie to a mercy rule scenario in just over 14 minutes of game time.

Quarterback Cody Miller tossed touchdown passes of 18 yards to Stephan Spolski and 31 yards to Jacob Hoffman; Hoffman and Dylan Schreffler had scoring runs of 14 and 22 yards respectively; and Schreffler returned an interception 64 yards for a score.

“Cody did a nice job of bouncing back from a couple of early interceptions,” said Mason. “He’s a cool kid and nothing rattles him, so I knew he wasn’t going to let them bother him. One of the picks wasn’t even his fault.

“He responded like the veteran he is. He threw a couple of nice touchdown passes and set up another one with a big pass.”

While Miller and the Green Wave offense was coming to life, Marian struggled to do anything offensively. The Colts had seven yards in total offense, three turnovers, and a number of penalties in the opening half.

“I didn’t do a good job of getting our team ready to play tonight,” said Dakosty. “We had trouble lining up in the right formations, we were hurt by penalties, we weren’t able to block anyone ... I can’t think of many things we did well tonight.

“As the head coach, that falls on me. There are no excuses. This is our fourth game, we can’t still be making some of the mistakes we made tonight.”

While Dakosty wasn’t happy with what he saw from his team, he was impressed with Nativity.

“As disappointed as I am with how we played, I want to make sure it’s clear that Nativity had a lot to do with it. That is an outstanding team. They fly to the ball defensively and they have playmakers all over the field on offense.

“They also took their foot off the pedal the entire second half or it could have been even worse.”

MILLER TIME ... Cody Miller’s father is former Panther Valley multi-sport standout and Division 1 (Army) football player Brad Miller. In addition to directing the Nativity offense, Miller has a huge leg as he was 4-for-4 on extra points with all of them not only going right down the middle, but nearly reaching the fence that encloses the Marian field. He appears to have 50-yard range.

MARIAN PICKS ... One of the few bright spots for the Colts (1-3) was the play of their secondary in the first quarter. Owen Brady and Jacob Fenstermaker had interceptions. Brady returned his nearly 40 yards to put Mariann in Nativity territory. Fenstermaker made his interception at the Nativity 35 and raced into the end zone, but a Colt penalty at the 5-yard line nullified the score, Marian still started the series on the Nativity 15, but a first down motion penalty and a third down sack pushed them all the way to the 39-yard line.

RUNNING CLOCK ... Both teams had just two possessions in the second half and neither side attempted a pass.