It's win or go home this Saturday for the Marathon High School football team, after a 42-24 home victory Friday night over district rival Miami Country Day.</p><p>The victory sets up a showdown at Westminster Christian that could create a three-way tie for the District 8-1A runner-up to Parkway Academy.</p><p>Saturday's game against Westminster is scheduled for 1 p.m. Should Marathon win, it sets up a rather unique playoff between those two teams and Dade Christian School.</p><p>"Us, Dade and Westminster would show up on Monday [site to be determined] and draw straws or numbers. The first two teams play a quarter and the winner plays the team that sat and watched and the winner is the runner-up," coach Lance Martin said.</p><p>Friday, the Dolphins built a big early lead and held the Spartans off during a penalty-ridden second half that saw both teams flagged for numerous personal fouls.</p><p>"It was a sloppy game that got out of hand" in the second half, Martin said. "We had all our starters out with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter. We didn't want anyone to get in trouble for [the] next week's game."</p><p>Senior quarterback Nyran Ross was back at it Friday, a week after torching Florida Christian for 232 yards of total offense and six touchdowns. He followed that performance up with another 257 combined yards and four touchdowns.</p><p>Ross was 6 for 16 for 106 yards and a touchdown through the air, and lit the Spartans up for 149 yards and three more touchdowns on just 12 rushing attempts.</p><p>Senior running back A.J. Freeman added another 125 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, while Kenyatta Scott added a 69-yard touchdown catch.</p><p>Freeman also blocked a punt attempt that was returned for a touchdown by junior Justin Kornetti.</p><p>Also defensively, senior linebacker Tweet Martin had what coach Martin called "one of the more dominating first halves I've ever seen."</p><p>Martin tallied 12 total tackles in the first half alone, including three sacks and three tackles for losses.</p><p>Country Day looked good early against the Dolphin defense, running a 17-play drive that ate up 9:30 of the first quarter. But the Spartans managed only a field goal to take a 3-0 lead.</p><p>Just 1:30 later, Marathon scored on the bomb from Ross to Scott to take a 7-3 lead. It appeared to be a low-scoring contest until Marathon exploded for three touchdowns in the last nine minutes of the second quarter.</p><p>Ross scored on a keeper from 16 yards out to make it 14-3 with 9:05 remaining in the second. Kornetti then scored on the Freeman punt block after the Dolphins stalled the ensuing Spartans drive.</p><p>Ross added another touchdown on a keeper from 25 yards out with just 59 seconds remaining in the first half to give Marathon a comfortable 28-3 halftime lead.</p><p>The Dolphins' lead grew immediately after the half, as Freeman scored to make it 34-3 with 10:17 remaining. Marathon pulled its starters out as tempers flared, and Country Day responded with three second-half touchdowns.</p><p>The game was never in doubt, though, as Ross scored his third rushing touchdown on yet another keeper with 7:00 left in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.