By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Greg Mortier hoped to minimize the damages.
With his squad pinned deep in their own territory, the Wilson Magnet head football coach wanted to get some room for a possible punt.
Moments later, Mortier watched as his Wildcats lined up for a two-point conversion.
If one play can represent the quick-strike ability of the Wilson Wildcats then this was it.
Jahkier Moore took the hand off just outside the shadow of the goalposts, looked middle and broke to his right. The senior tailback beat a pair of defenders around the end and didn’t stop until he crossed the goal line 98 yards later.
“He’s that kinda kid,” Mortier said. “He’s really explosive, so if there is a little bit of a crease there are not many kids that are going to catch him. You have to have the right angle.”
Moore finished the day with 218 yards on 14 carries. He rushed for two touchdowns as Wilson improved to four wins and zero losses on the season with a 54-28 win over Greece Arcadia at Marina Auto Stadium.
“I watched pre-snap how they were lining up,” he explained. “We wanted to run up the middle, but I saw that they had two tackles on the same side, so they stacked that part. They pinched in and I bounced out. The safety didn’t know which way I was going to go. I cut out, and he dove. I took it to the house from there.”
His 98-yard jaunt broke open a 14-0 game and turned it into a 22-0 runaway.
“We were just praying to get out of the shadow of our own end zone,” Mortier said matter-of-factly. “We wanted to just hopefully pop it and get a little bit, get out to the 10 or something and have some room and not be trying to punt from standing on the back line of the end zone.
“Plays like that are hard sometimes (for the defense) because they’re jammed up pretty good, so when it pops sometimes that’s what happens.”
Jahkier Moore carries it across from the 2. Conversion failed. 8:11 to go in half: @wildcats_wilson 14 Arcadia 0 pic.twitter.com/AQnQuUINqm
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 28, 2019
Wilson’s defense held three-and-out on the following Arcadia possession, and Dante McGowan blocked the ensuing punt. Brennan Clark picked up the ball and scampered into the end zone. After a 2-pt. conversion, Wilson had a commanding 30-0 lead with 1:55 remaining in the first half.
Donte McGowan blocks the punt. BJ Clark runs it in. 2-pt. conversion. 1:55 to go in half. @wildcats_wilson 30-0 pic.twitter.com/8FdSBkLq8v
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 28, 2019
“We made plays in all three phases, big plays,” Mortier pointed out. “It’s hard for another team to come back from that sometimes.
“It seemed like when we needed a play, whatever phase, we got somebody to step up and make a play. It helps having playmakers that can do that sort of stuff, so it’s not just dumb luck. They work hard and good things sometimes happen. I told them ‘the bounces went our way.’ It doesn’t always work that way, but when you work hard sometimes it does. We had kids that were ready. They made the play when they had to do.”
Wilson’s defense held Arcadia, which came into the game averaging more than 36 points per game, to three first downs and seven points in the first half.
On the Titans first plays from scrimmage in their opening two drives, the Wildcats defensive line got the push needed to sack Arcadia QB Brian Shonitsky.
“Winning on first down was big for us,” Mortier stated. “I thought we did a good job for most of the day on first down. It kinda took them out of their rhythm. They got out of the ability to run the ball the way they wanted to.”
Angel Arbalaez gets the tackle for a loss. End 1st: @wildcats_wilson 8 @GreeceArcadia 0 pic.twitter.com/BoJ4r8dyXI
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 28, 2019
Wilson forced a loss on Arcadia’s opening play of their third drive. It wasn’t until the Titans’ fourth possession that they managed positive yards on the opening play. A screen pass to K’myn Crumity produced eight yards.
“We’re pretty fast defensively,” Mortier added. “We play a pretty aggressive style. We can get caught sometimes with the screen pass. Sometimes that hurts us, but we feel like with our pace defensively we can try to get people out of their norm. Arcadia has got a pretty good run game. We’ve seen them. We saw what they did to East last week. We felt like if we can get them out of second and shorts and mediums and we could get them into longer distances it fits more into our aggressive pass rush style.”
Crumity came into the game leading Class A with 508 rushing yards. He was most successful on Saturday out of the backfield catching screen passes. The senior went 43 yards on a second-and-10 play to get Arcadia on the scoreboard with :13 seconds remaining in the half. He scored on a 46-yard screen early in the third.
Wilson’s Ernest Thomas made an interception on the first play from scrimmage of the second half and converted his second “pick-6” in as many weeks. The interception was the junior’s fifth of the season. Wilson led 38-7.
Wildcats quarterback Sam Jackson completed 5-of-7 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns.
Clark made two receptions for 71 yards.
Sharod Watkins had 10 tackles, five for a loss and one sack. Josh Baker added seven tackles, two for a loss and one sack.
McGowan opened the scoring with a 35-yard run.
Shonitsky and Shakim Harris also scored touchdowns for Arcadia.
Arcadia (2-2) will host Brockport (1-3) next Saturday. A 2 PM start is scheduled.
Wilson (4-0) will travel to play at Eastridge (4-0) also on Saturday for a 2 PM kickoff.
“We’re pushing to go undefeated this season. I think this team is better than the team that won sectionals,” Moore said referring to the 2017 Wilson squad. “This team is definitely better. We have a lot of weapons.”
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