The latest in a string of overpowering games for St. Thomas first began to go its way with a stop.
But just about everything after that was all go, go, go for the Trojans, including the clock a little over one minute into the second half.
St. Thomas halted a fourth-and-two attempt by Middlesex just inside the 50 on its opening drive, promptly answered with a touchdown, and then scored on its next three possessions to build a big halftime lead on its way to a 41-0 win over the Blue Jays in a cross-divisional Big Central Conference clash Thursday night at Mountainview Park in Middlesex.
Senior running back Sherrod Hudson rushed for three touchdowns, junior quarterback Jayden Young passed for two scores and ran for one, and the defense preserved its unscored-upon status through all six games by limiting Middlesex (3-4) to just 91 total yards.
“We just want to come out and prove what we didn’t prove last year; hat we can come out and play with the best of them,” Young said after he’d completed 5 of 8 passes for 93 yards and a pair of touchdowns to senior Jon Wyatt, and carried 13 yards for a TD to cap the scoring seven seconds into the final quarter.
By then, the clock had already been running continuously for over 10 minutes, compliments of a 30-yard run by Hudson to open a 35-0 lead 1:37 into the second quarter. A running clock is initiated once a team establishes at least a 32-point lead in the second half.
It is a pattern the Trojans set in the second game this season against Roselle (a 43-0 win) and have continued ever since with a well-balanced offense and a hard-hitting and athletic defense anchored Thursday by linebackers Bey Israel, Kenny Coghan, back Etinosa Igebor, end Isaiah Marellis and DT Kenny Coghan.
But despite having now outscored opponents by a whopping 247-0, the shutouts are not and never were the priority.
“We don’t want the weight of shutting teams out to burden us. We want to have shutouts as a byproduct of playing good football, and that’s really want we’ve done. If it happens, great, we’ll take it,” head coach Brian Meeney said.
“But we’re realists,” he said. “We realize there are teams out there that have been scored on that are bigger schools that have better defenses than us. But for who we are and who we’ve been playing and the world we’re in, our coaches and our kids on that side of the ball are really doing amazing things.”
Amazing, for sure. But it has been the Trojans’ electrifying play from the opposites side of the ball that has enabled this physical and quick-reacting defense to defend its turf in accelerated circumstances in the second half. St. Thomas eked out its opening game, 6-0, over Woodstown, and has coasted ever since.
“We just stay locked in, one-track minded and we just block out all the negatives,” said Hudson, who aided the defense from the secondary while also pacing the scoring attack with his ability to turn the corner and find the end zone. Junior running back Joel Marellis did score Thursday, though helped his team move the chains by rolling up 141 yards on 16 carries.
“We’ve been getting overlooked, so we just try to outwork every other team and just keep getting better,” he said.
Young, Hudson and Meeney all agreed that the shutout is not the goal entering a game. However, this squad doesn’t mind if its demeanor makes that night’s foe doubt its likelihood of visiting the end zone.
“One thing we live by, when we enter the football field, we want to be in a bad mood, and I mean it,” Meeney said. “It’s not like coach-speak. We want to be out here with bad intentions both sides of the ball. Toughness is our foundation.”
Middlesex seemed capable to chipping away at that foundation off the opening kick. Junior fullback Roberto Araoz churned out 25 yards on his first carries right up the gut. But linemen Nico Tricoles, Steve Coghan, Jeremiah Delihomme and Isaiah Marellis dug in and held Araoz to a combined eight yards over the next three attempts. The Blue Jays went for the first on fourth-and-two from its 46, but Araoz was stopped just shy of the marker.
“That was a big for us. No one really respects us yet, so we just want to come out and prove we’re better than every team,” Young said.
St. Thomas then moved 47 yards in four plays, the final one a 34-yard pass from Young to Wyatt in the front left corner of the end zone, and Young then hit Najee Lovejoy on the conversion for an 8-0 lead with 6:21 to go in the first quarter.
St. Thomas would be outfitted with choice field position the remainder of the half, and was sure to capitalize.
It started its next possession at the Middlesex 40 following a punt, and Joel Marellis got it off to a great start with a 26-yard run. Two plays later, Hudson ran in from the 11 for a 14-0 advantage.
St. Thomas struck with a seven-play, 41-yard drive on its third series, with Hudson capping it with a 1-yard run with 8:13 remaining in the half. Just under four minutes later, Young connected with Wyatt on a 23-yard pass to close a four-play, 53-yard advance for a 28-0 lead.
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Mike Kinney can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeKinneyHS.
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