Polo grabbed momentum early, then Hiawatha fought back. But the Marcos had the answers in the second half and went on to defeat the Hawks 36-14 in their Illinois 8-Man Football Association first-round playoff game Saturday in Polo.

The Marcos (9-1) scored on their first three possessions, then saw Hiawatha turn a pair of turnovers into touchdowns. But the second half was all Polo, as it held the Hawks to minus-18 yards rushing while adding two Jordan Reed touchdown runs to pull away.

“Our defense definitely set the tone today. Our offense struggled a little bit at times, but we found our stride again and finished it,” said senior lineman Wyatt Plachno, who got a second-half carry for 3 yards. “They did what we expected them to do. We were expecting more trick plays, so we were more on our toes than usual, but we got in the backfield and we made them rattled a little bit.”

Polo recovered an onside kick to start the game, and quarterback JT Stephenson scored on a 9-yard run eight plays later for an 8-0 lead. Hiawatha drove to the red zone, but Reed intercepted a pass at the 1-yard line to thwart a scoring chance.

The Marcos then marched 99 yards in 11 plays, with Stephenson scoring from 11 yards out for a 14-0 lead.

“It was really our energy,” Reed said. “We had to get it up, get it going and our coaches were saying that we needed to punch them in the mouth right away and get our offense going.”

Polo forced a three-and-out, then Stephenson threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Reed on a wheel route to make it 22-0 – then recovered its second onside kick of the half.

“It’s really big to get those. We work on it a lot at practice, our onside kicks, and we got two of them today,” Stephenson said. “We work hard on it, and we’ve got eight guys going after the ball that really want it.”

But a fumbled snap was kicked about 15 yards downfield and Hiawatha recovered, then senior quarterback Aidan Cooper sprinted 68 yards for a Hawks touchdown.

On the next series, Tim Pruitt picked off a Polo pass and returned it 53 yards to the 7-yard line before running in from 5 yards on a direct-snap sweep to cut the Hawks’ deficit to 22-14 with 39.7 seconds left in the first half.

“It feels nice that we can overcome things and change really quick the way that we’re moving,” said Cooper, who finished with 59 yards rushing and 56 yards passing. “We really gave it all that we had out there and left it all on the field, but I think they just kind of out-powered us.”

Hiawatha (5-5) was playing without three offensive starters – both guards went down with early injuries and its top receiver was also sidelined – and just couldn’t keep up with the Marcos in the second half.

Reed’s 16-yard run on a direct snap capped Polo’s opening drive of the third quarter, then he redeemed himself after fumbling on the next possession to score from 22 yards out for a 36-14 lead with 1:13 left in the third.

“Our biggest thing is the next play, don’t worry about the last one,” Stephenson said. “You can’t go back in the past, so you can’t change it. That’s one thing we preach is looking ahead to the next play, make the next one count.”

Stephenson rushed for 179 yards on 28 carries, and also connected with Reed on three passes for 56 yards; he added a team-high five tackles. Reed had 129 yards on 17 carries as Polo amassed 387 yards of total offense, including 331 on the ground, and he added four tackles to his interception.

Plachno had two tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery; Ethan Dewey had three tackles, two TFLs, a sack and a fumble recovery and Esteban Salinas added an interception for the Marcos.

“It’s really the front four, they were making a whole lot of plays and getting in their backfield constantly, making tackles behind the line of scrimmage,” Reed said. “That helped us DBs make big plays too, because they were forcing bad throws.”

Hiawatha managed just 113 total yards, rushing for minus-11 yards besides Cooper’s long touchdown run. The Hawks turned the ball over four times and managed just six first downs – with only one of its eight possessions including multiple first downs.

“The kids kept fighting,” Hiawatha coach Kenny McPeek said. “We played without three offensive starters, and that kind of hurt – but we played well doing it. The interceptions really helped, and our defense was real solid and played well. Overall, this is the best we’ve played Polo in the five years I’ve been coaching, and being in the playoffs, that’s a good thing.”