Mavs can’t keep up with Jones
James Monroe (20) vs. Oak Hill (54)
Written: Sep 24, 2011
By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
LINDSIDE — It had been a long time since a Fayette County football team had beaten James Monroe High School, and the Oak Hill Red Devils knew it coming into Lindside Friday evening.
After running for 191 yards in a 54-20 rout of the Mavericks, Oak Hill sophomore Jalen Jones said, “The coach has been preaching all week that we haven’t beat them in three, six years? It sure feels good to steal a win from them up here.”
Oak Hill (2-3) amassed 464 yards of offense, including 410 on the ground, and jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the game’s first 11 minutes.
Head coach Eddy Souk said, “We played four quarters of football tonight. ... We played hard, we played physical. That’s what you’ve got to do when you come down here.”
“It’s a whole different attitude from what they’ve had before,” said James Monroe (2-3) head coach Don Jackson. “They just got all over us in a hurry, and we just didn’t come in here to play.”
“They’ve got a ton of athletes,” Jackson said. “We couldn’t block ’em. When you play somebody with that much speed, they run around your blocks. We just couldn’t block ’em up front there, early. We had a couple of decent drives on them, but it was kind of over with before that happened.”
It was hard to keep up with the Jones, and with Ray Sullivan, who had 109 yards, and defenders like seniors Micheal McFarland and Kameron Carroll.
The Red Devils limited the Mavericks to 229 yards. Matthew Romanello, who had 286 rushing yards last Friday, managed 95 on 23 tough carries against Oak Hill.
Souk said, “We took care of the run pretty good.”
Oak Hill scored on its first drive with Sullivan going 12 yards to the goal line. Two plays later, Oak Hill’s Demetri Gray sacked Mavericks quarterback John Mustain, forcing a fumble that Larry Palmer carried 10 yards for the Red Devils’ second TD in a 51-second span.
The game included nine fumbles, with James Monroe coughing the ball up six times and losing three. Oak Hill lost all three of its fumbles on a field that had been rained on Friday afternoon.
James Monroe’s first score came when Romanello rolled out, faked a pass and took the ball around the corner with 5:45 left in the first half, cutting the deficit to 21-7.
Jones went 70 yards with the next kickoff, then ran the ball in on the next offensive play. The Mavericks answered with a 75-yard drive, as Mustain hit Micah Deskins with a 26-yard scoring toss with 1:27 left in the period.
But Oak Hill moved alertly downfield and Jones scooped up a lateral off the ground and ran it 36 yards to give the visitors a 35-14 lead at the break.
Lowe, Demetri Gray and Antonio Gray added short touchdowns in the second half. The Mavs’ last score came on a 7-yard pass from Romanello to E.T. Weiss.
Jones scored three touchdowns, including a 59-yarder in the first quarter, and kicked six extra points to single-handedly outscore the home team.
Souk said, “I would say our running game really stepped up tonight. Our linemen have been working hard, and they did a real good job blocking.”
Souk said about Jones, “He showed me that he’s capable of taking the ball and running it inside. He can take it outside. He does about whatever he has to do with it.”
Jones said, “Our line was pushing, they just did not stop moving their feet. They were opening holes to let me and our other running back, Adam Lowe, get in through there. They did a real good job.”
McFarland said, “We executed all night long. The defense was fired up all night long and we played hard.”
Jones said, “The defense plays excellent, always. We preach defense 24/7 in practice. That’s all we go over.”
Souk said the win “gives us a leg up on where we were at. We’ve been in every ballgame, all season, and for us to come and finally put four quarters together is, I think, a big step in the right direction.”
“It turns us around,” Jones said. “It really gets us together.”
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com
At H.E. Comer Jr. Sports Complex
Oak Hill.................................21 14 13 6 – 54
James Monroe.....................0 14 0 6 – 20
First Quarter
OH – Ray Sullivan 11 run (Jalen Jones kick), 6:47
OH – Larry Palmer 10 fumble return (Jones kick), 5:56
OH – Jones 59 run (Jones kick), 1:02
Second Quarter
JM – Matthew Romanello 6 run (Ryan Wickline kick), 5:45
OH – Jones 5 run (Jones kick), 5:25
JM – Micah Deskins 26 pass from John Mustain (Wickline kick), 1:27
OH – Jones 36 run (Jones kick), 0:32
Third Quarter
OH – Adam Lowe 1 run (Jones kick), 9:14
OH – Demetri Gray 3 run (kick blocked), 1:39
Fourth Quarter
JM – E.T. Weiss 7 pass from Romanello (kick failed), 10:03
OH – Antonio Gray 9 run (kick failed), 3:14
———
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – OH, Jalen Jones 15-191, Adam Lowe 11-37, Ray Sullivan 10-109, Andrew De'Angelo 5-42, Demetri Gray 4-17, Kadrin Goodman 2-5, Antonio Gray 1-9. JM, Matthew Romanello 23-95, Trevor Fullen 15-48, Ryan Payne 2-3, John Mustain 2-(-11), Brian Young 2-15, Reed McNeer 1-1, Brandon Carter 1-9.
PASSING – OH, De'Angelo 3-9-54 yd.-0-0. JM, Mustain 5-7-43-1 TD-0 intc., Romanello 3-8-26-1-1.
RECEIVING – OH, Christopher Dennler 1-8, Jalen Jones 1-14, Adam Lowe 1-32. JM, Trevor Fullen 3-20, E.T. Weiss 1-7, Shay Tomlinson 3-16, Micah Deskins 1-26.
———
TEAM STATISTICS
OH JM
First downs 18 12
Total yds. Offense 464 229
Rushes-yds. 48-410 46-160
Passing yards 54 69
Comp-att-intc. 3-9-0 8-15-1
Punts-avg. 0-0 5-28.8
Penalties-yds. 6-40 4-20
Fumbles-lost 3-3 6-3
Kickoff ret.-yds. 4-111 9-233
Punt ret.-yds. 2-(-11) 0-0
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