T.C. Football Dominates in a 49-20 Win
Hunter Langley
Friday night lights. On October 19 the Titans football team traveled to Edison to play their final road game on the season. Both the Titans and the Eagles had a 3-4 record going into the contest and it was a match-up of who wanted it more and the Titans showed it in their intense and physical play.
It was a slow start for the Titans, the offense took a little while to get going, having a few miscues in the beginning of the game. The defense similarly struggled giving up an early touchdown on a thirty-four yard pass. The score after the first quarter was 7-7.
In the second quarter the Titans scored quick with two touchdowns from Junior quarterback Robert Longerbeam. The two teams then scored a touchdowns which resulted in T.C. having a 28-13 lead at half.
During the third quarter both teams scored a touchdown early. Then a late third quarter rushing touchdown by sophomore backup running back Michael Honesty secured the game for the Titans giving T.C. a 22 point lead going into the fourth quarter.
The defense held up for the rest of the game not allowing another point from the Eagles. The offense piled up the points with another Longerbeam touchdown early in the 4th quarter to make the final score 49-20.
As Mick Jagger said, “If you start me up I’ll never stop.” That was the case with the T.C. offense run by Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Jeff Cave. They were firing on all cylinders, they totaled 435 yards, 154 passing and 281 rushing, along with seven touchdowns.
Longerbeam was electrifying to watch. He had 5 total touchdowns and was extremely efficient both running and passing the football. Longerbeam said, “I feel like my play was good, I had a few fumbles, but we will clean it up and get ready for Mount Vernon.”
Junior running back Anthony Eaton had yet another game with over 100 yards rushing yards as he has been the team’s most consistent rusher throughout the season. He also had a 41 yard receiving touchdown and a three yard rushing touchdown.
The forgotten group that makes the offense run are the “soul crushers” in the offensive line led by senior Dillon Miranda, junior Luke Wilson, senior Gabriel Andzie-Mensah, sophomore Gino Messina, sophomore Zachary Ringel and sophomore Telly Knox. Miranda said, “I think that we overcame a lot of adversity in the first half and started out slow on offense, but we really locked in started playing as a unit and put points on the board.”
The defense played well throughout the night. They allowed 20 points mainly off of mental errors resulting in big plays. All of the Eagles touchdowns came off of plays of thirty yards or more. Junior cornerback Mohamed Aly said, “Our defense struggled the first couple of opening plays, but we decided to come as a team, not underestimating, and to respect our opponents.”
Junior wide receiver and safety Ricardo Ross had a very good game on offense. He amassed 64 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Ross said, “I felt this was a major turn around on my performance. I had 2 touchdowns and an amazing one handed catch.”
The next Titans game will be at home versus Mount Vernon in a matchup against the 6-2 Majors. T.C. will look to capture a winning record going into their homecoming game versus Annadale the following week.
