by TYLER HATHAWAY
WEBSTER, NY– Before Friday’s game against Hilton started, Webster Thomas head coach Jasson Jobson met with his players in the pre-game huddle and had one key message he wanted to get across.
“My pregame speech today was that if you want to be a dog in this game, you just got to have the mentality of running through people,” said Jobson.
285 rushing yards later, it was clear that his team took that message and ran with it. The Titans took the lead on their first drive of the game and never gave it up on their way to a 27-17 win in their home opener.
“It feels good,” Jobson said about getting the win. “I mean, everytime you get a win it’s important. Winning is better than losing, I’ll tell you that much.”
186 of those 285 total rushing yards came from senior running back MJ Wells. He carried the ball 22 times, scored three touchdowns, and was nearly impossible to bring down on a few runs, often requiring two or three Hilton defenders to get him down to the ground. Rachaad Monson also received a bulk of carries, finishing with 13 carries for 86 yards.
“He doesn’t run around you,” Jobson said of Wells. “He will run through you. And the more people you have in between the lines running through people, the better it’s going to be.”
Wells’ first touchdown of the game came on the opening drive. The Titans quickly got down deep into the redzone after quarterback Nolan Bhame found wide receiver Nasir Manthorne on a deep ball two minutes into the first quarter. Two plays later, Wells got the handoff and ran it six yards to give Webster Thomas an early 7-0 lead, making it the second straight week that the Titans opened the game with a touchdown drive.
Midway through the second quarter, with Webster Thomas up 7-3, Wells put together a couple of big runs that got the Titans to first and goal. And on fourth and goal, Bhame pitched the ball to Wells on the outside who made one man miss and fought through another to just barely muscle the ball across the goal line and extend Webster Thomas’ lead to 13-3.
The Webster Thomas defense then made some splash in the final moments of the half. Twice in the final five minutes of the first half did Hilton move the ball into enemy territory, but both times the Titan defense came away with turnovers, forcing a fumble with around four minutes to go and Monson intercepting a pass just before halftime to keep the score at 13-3 heading into the break. Hilton only entered the redzone in the first half when an errant snap by Webster Thomas gave the Cadets field position deep in Titan territory.
“MJ (Wells), Max Travato, Tyler Estelle, Ari Gefell, Josh Jobson, we got some dudes in the front six,” said Jobson. “We’re confident with their ability to stop the run. And our secondary played really well tonight, too.”
Hilton got the ball after halftime and immediately put together a lengthy touchdown drive, capped off by running back Tyler Reger finding the endzone from just a few yards out, making the score 13-10 about halfway through the third quarter. Just two plays into the drive, the Titans faced third and long, but Bhame found Ashton Thomas in the flat who picked up 10 yards. The next play, Wells broke a 35-yard run that flipped the field into Hilton territory. Following that, Bhame connected on his second deep ball of the game, this time a 25-yard touchdown pass to wideout Khimere Johnson. And just like that, Webster Thomas’ lead was back to 10.
“Our guys really had to answer a couple of times,” Jobson said of his offense. “It was nice to see that.”
After each team traded punts, and the game entered the fourth quarter, Hilton put together another touchdown drive that culminated in Reger scoring his second touchdown of the game, cutting the Webster Thomas lead back to three points with seven and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. After the drive, Jobson talked to his offensive line, composed of five seniors.
“I brought them in and said that we’re gonna see what they’re made of,” said Jobson. “We were going to put our hand in the freaking ground and grind and pound it out.”
And the Titans did exactly what their coach wanted them to. MJ Wells unleashed another long run, this time a 40-yarder to move Webster Thomas into Hilton territory. Monson had a couple of chunk runs. The drive was capped off once again by a Wells touchdown run, and four minutes after Hilton reduced the lead to three, Webster Thomas once again extended it back to 10.
The final two Hilton (0-1) drives ended in turnovers, with John Iota making an interception with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Titans recovering a fumble with 30 seconds left to ice the game.
“Nobody knows about him and people need to know about him,” Jobson said of Wells. “The kid’s a beast on defense and he’ll run through you on offense.”
Webster Thomas (1-1) hits the road to face Victor next Friday night.
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