Owen J. Roberts grinds out 13-0 win at Methacton
EAGLEVILLE >> Dave Lotier knew coming into the season that it wasn’t going to be a rebuilding season as much as it was going to be a complete build from the bottom up.
Coming into a program that has struggled mightily to gain any footing in the Pioneer Athletic Conference, he brought with him a stone mason’s motto of building the program one brick at a time.
On Friday night against PAC rising power Owen J. Roberts, although the Warriors’ house did not come close to completion, signs of a foundation popping up from the ground started to show.
Methacton’s defense encountered a constant barrage from Wildcats dual threat quarterback Cooper Chamberlain and a pounding run game from running back Marcus Martin and for long stretches, and for most of the night bent but didn’t break in a 13-0 loss on homecoming night.
“I feel like it was a tale of two halves,” Lotier said. “I feel like, in the first half, we lost focus either offensively or defensively and it led to big plays on [Owen J. Roberts’] part. We went into halftime and we regrouped, and that second half was one of the best halves of football that we played all year, defensively. Offensively, we didn’t put any points up, but we moved the ball a little bit and we were executing, and that’s what we were looking for, to execute.”
There was no mistake which was the better team on the night, as the Wildcats (6-3) were in complete control of the game for pretty much the entire game with Chamberlain putting up a game-high 102 yards through the air to go along with another 62 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and Martin adding 102 yards of his own on the ground, but Methacton (1-8) put in a yeoman’s effort in defeat in limiting Owen J. Roberts to just the two first-half scores.
Methacton’s best offensive chance to put points on the board came on its opening drive when a Reese Rhodenbaugh fumble recovery gave the Warriors a short field to work with at the Owen J. Roberts 14-yard line. But after a run for a loss and a two-yard pass and an incompletion set up a field goal from the Wildcat 13, placekicker Nick O’Brian’s field goal attempt sailed wide to keep the score at 0-0.
The Wildcats responded with an 80-yard drive, capped by a 62-yard touchdown run by Dante Denardo to take a 6-0 lead with 8:02 to go in the first quarter, and throughout the rest of the first half, Methacton’s offense struggled to get out of its own half, picking up just 32 yards throughout the rest of the half.
On the other end, an Owen J. Roberts fumble lost and two straight series in which Wildcat drives resulted in a turnover on downs ended their next three series without a score before Martin highlighted a four-play, 71-yard drive with runs of 19, five and 46 yards before Chamberlain took the quarterback keeper to the right for the score and a 13-0 lead.
Methacton opened the second half with a three-and-out and failed to pull off any surprises when a fake punt resulted in a nine-yard loss to give the Owen J. Roberts short field once again, but a missed field goal at the end of Owen J. Roberts’ drive kept the score at 13-0.
While the Warrior offense continued to struggle to get moving in the second half though, its defense limited the effectiveness of the Wildcats big-play ability. And although it seemed like Owen J. Roberts was camped out in the Methacton half of the field for much of the half, the Warriors were able to keep their counterparts off the board to really put the game out of reach.
“We don’t want to give up those big plays, but we want to keep teams out of the end zone, so in the big picture, we played well defensively,” Lotier said. “I just told the kids that if you look at the points difference in the PAC schedule from last year to this year, it is unbelievable. We’re giving up under 20 points a game, and we’re competing with those teams.
“We have to stop those big plays. They are mostly coming from lack of execution at times. We have some guys banged up right now, and we have some young guys playing . . . that are going to have some growing pains that gave up a couple of big plays, but overall, the kids fought and I thought we played well defensively all night.”
Chamberlain agreed it wasn’t one of the more stronger performances from the Wildcats this season, but took a big-picture approach to the night overall.
“It definitely wasn’t our best effort this game, but we came out with a win and everyone tried their hardest, he said. “Guys got banged up, but played through it and that’s all that matters. I am just glad we came away with the win tonight.”
NOTES >> Methacton quarterback Dylan Schultz finished the night with eight completions on 21 attempts for 38 yards and two late interceptions, while running back Gary Knox led the Warrior ground game with 47 yards on nine carries.
