The Monmouth-Roseville Titans football team was back in action on Friday night playing in the final week of the regular season in Sherrard taking on the TRAC-West division rival Tigers. Sitting at 4-4 on the season, Monmouth-Roseville needed a win to secure their spot in the IHSA playoffs, a win that the Titans would ultimately get by the final score of 34-18.
Monmouth-Roseville was slated to receive the opening kickoff after Sherrard differed to the second half. However, the Tigers executed a perfect onside kick to give the ball to their offense to start the game. After a deep pass set Sherrard up inside the Titans red-zone, Tigers quarterback Holland Anderson scored the first points of the game on a 14 yard scamper to put Sherrard up 6-0 (missed PAT). On the Titans first offensive drive, M-R responded in kind on the heels of big runs from junior Payton Thompson, including a 6 yard touchdown run to put the Titans in the lead 7-6 (successful PAT from Avendano). Holland Anderson would score his second rushing touchdown of the quarter on the ensuing drive, scoring from 3 yards out to put the Tigers back on top 12-7 (failed 2pt attempt) after a long sustained drive from Sherrard. The first quarter clock would run out after the Titans started their drive at their own 20 yard line.
The Titans offense would put together a sustained drive of their own to start the second quarter, taking the ball all the way inside the Sherrard red zone before scoring on a keeper from quarterback Andy Myers to put Monmouth-Roseville back in the lead 13-12 (missed PAT). M-R’s defense forced a three and out on the next Sherrard drive, and had a 56 yard touchdown run from Payton Thompson, but that play was brought back due to a holding penalty. The Titans would eventually punt after this penalty. Monmouth-Roseville’s defense came up with another big play on the ensuing Tigers drive, as defensive end James Blackman picked off Anderson at the 11 yard line of Sherrard, leading to Myers second rushing touchdown of the game, putting the Titans up 21-12 after the successful 2 point try.
Sherrard’s offense would trot out first in the second half. A big run from the Tigers would move them down inside Titans territory, before scoring on a 19 yard touchdown run from Noah Fender to cut the Titans lead down to 3 after the extra point try was blocked. A big pickup from Andy Myers opened up the Titans corresponding drive on the right foot, before another long touchdown was taken off the board due to a penalty, this time from Tyler Finnicum. On the next play however, Thompson took in a score with no flags from 48 yards out to push M-R’s lead back up to 27-18 (failed 2pt attempt). Another long pass play from Holland Anderson to receiver Skylar Schmidt set the Tigers back up in the Titans red zone once again, however multiple penalties would push Sherrard all the way back to the 40 yard line, forcing a punt back to the Titans. A big third down run from Thompson would extend Monmouth-Roseville’s drive to the Sherrard 15, where Myers would punch in his third rushing touchdown of the game to extend the Titans lead to 16 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
The final quarter of action would begin with the Tigers receiving the kickoff. In a pivotal drive for Sherrard to try and keep themselves in the game, the Tigers would face a 4th and 25 from the Titans 42, where Anderson would be stopped short to give the ball back to the M-R offense with 8 minutes left to play. Looking to run out the clock and secure the win, the Titans would burn 5 minutes off the clock before coughing up the ball on a fumble that the Tigers would recover with just 3:24 to play. On Sherrard’s final offensive drive of the game, the Tigers picked up a crucial 4th down to keep their hopes alive for the moment. The third and fourth sacks of the game from sophomore Nick Huston came back to back to push the Tigers drive back before Holland Anderson threw a pick to sophomore Andrew Way to seal the game 34-18 for the Titans, sending them back to the IHSA playoffs.
In the stat book for Sherrard, Holland Anderson went 20/33 passing for 274 yards and 2 interceptions. Anderson added 2 touchdowns on the ground, while Noah Fender led receiving with 8 catches for 111 yards. For the Titans, Andy Myers passed just once for 12 yards to Payton Thompson, as Monmouth-Roseville dominated on the ground with 174 yards and 2 scores from Thompson, 111 yards from Tyler Finnicum, and 3 rushing touchdowns from Andy Myers. Now at 5-4 on the season, the Titans are all but locked in for their third straight playoff appearance, the longest streak in program history. M-R will find out who and where they play tomorrow night, when the IHSA releases their playoff pairings for all 8 classes at around 7:00 PM.
For the WRAM radio replay of the game, click HERE
