Williamstown shuts down Warren, 34-6
Photo by Neal Smith Williamstown’s Maxwell Molessa (7) carries the ball during a high school football game against Warren Saturday in Vincent. Williamstown won, 34-6.
Warren’s Zach Lucas (21) makes a catch as Williamstown’s Logan White (9) brings him down during a high school football game Saturday in Vincent. Williamstown won, 34-6.
Photo by Neal Smith Williamstown’s Maxwell Molessa (7) carries the ball during a high school football game against Warren Saturday in Vincent. Williamstown won, 34-6.
Warren’s Zach Lucas (21) makes a catch as Williamstown’s Logan White (9) brings him down during a high school football game Saturday in Vincent. Williamstown won, 34-6.
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VINCENT -- Warren struck first here Saturday night inside Warrior Stadium, but visiting Williamstown owned the trenches and cruised to a 34-6 triumph.
Jason Williams, who left the game in the first half with an arm injury, caught a 53-yard touchdown pass from Trent Taylor. Taylor rolled right and then threw back across the field to his tailback, who hauled in the aerial and galloped for the score to make it 6-0 at 4:08 of the first as the kick failed.
Williamstown fumbled on its first possession and Williams recovered it before he scored on the very next play.
From that point forward, the Warrior offense wasn't able to do much. Taylor finished 10 of 18 for 154 yards, but completed just one pass in the second half. The 'Jacket defense held the hosts to 159 total yards, which included 24 stripes after intermission.
"I thought we started off a little slow," admitted Yellowjacket head man Chris Beck, whose team improved to 1-1 and welcomes in Ravenswood at 7 p.m. Friday for homecoming. "They came out in a little bit different defense than we anticipated and gave us some fits.
"Credit coach (Matt) Kimes and his staff. They were down a lot of guys tonight and I thought they played really hard. We got the run game going a little bit and got some positive momentum going, but we got to start faster."
As a team, the 'Jackets rushed 50 times for 330 yards. Signal-caller Maxwell Molessa led the way with 22 rushes for 154 yards and a trio of scores. Trevor Oates broke the century mark, toting 14 times for 110 stripes. Also, Rickie Allen added 52 ground yards on eight attempts.
A 38-yard completion from Molessa, who was 6 of 10 for 75 yards, to Louis Goodnow converted a third-and-6 from the 'Jacket 42. Allen then bulled his way for 16 yards and eventually punched it in on third-and-goal from the 1. Isaac Joy's boot put the visitors ahead for good with 25 ticks left in the opening stanza.
"We knew the cards were kind of stacked against us going into this with a great program like Williamstown," noted coach Kimes, whose 1-2 squad also has homecoming at 7 p.m. Friday versus Logan. "We are playing so many young guys and playing positions they haven't played. They just kept playing and kept playing. At the end of the day we can keep the heads high, lick our wounds and get ready for Logan."
The Warriors had snapping issues all evening and on their ensuing possession after the Williamstown score, Taylor was sacked on second-and-15 by Harbor Haught.
After both teams traded punts, Warren was driving after two carries by Williams netted 13 yards, but a Taylor pass went through the hands of his receiver and Colton Hesson picked it off. That eventually led to a 10-yard Molessa touchdown and a 14-6 cushion with 4:53 left in the half.
Molessa's 1-yard TD plunge with 34 seconds left before intermission put the Warriors in a 21-6 hole.
Williamstown opened the second half with the ball, but fumbled it away in the red zone. Warren ended up having to punt from its own end zone after a 14-yard bad snap. That allowed the 'Jackets to take over at the Warrior 30 and Molessa eventually raced in for a 21-yard TD and a 28-6 cushion.
The Yellowjackets' final six-pointer came on a 15-play drive that was capped by an Oates 3-yard score at 8:30 of the fourth.
"Defensively, I thought coach (Brian) Adams and his staff did a great job with a great game plan," added coach Beck, who watched Warren rush 22 times for 15 yards and not pick up a second-half first down until the final Warriors' drive. "I thought our kids played hard, assignment football. We're still missing a few assignments, but as we go along I mean we'll get better and better.
"I am just really proud of how hard we played. I think that was a big deal. We controlled the line of scrimmage up front and I'm really happy with that. Short week. Ravenswood is 0-2 and they lost to two really good teams. We got our hands full next week. We got to get ready and go play Yellowjacket football again next week."
Taylor Bowers led the Warriors with five rushes for 36 yards, 30 of which came on the final drive. Goodnow had a game-high four catches and 56 yards. Williams finished with three grabs for a game-high 87 yards. Hunter Grimm (3-31), Brodie Tait (2-25) and Zach Lucas (2-11) had the other Warrior receptions.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com