The Monmouth-Roseville Titans football team returned to usual Three Rivers Conference action this past Friday night, taking a road trip north to take on the Red Devils of Spring Valley Hall. Looking to continue a historic undefeated season, the Titans secured a 35-14 win over Hall, which also locked up a division title in the Mississippi division of the Three Rivers.
A fast moving and low scoring first half saw just two offensive drives in the first quarter. SVH opened with the ball, driving methodically inside Titans territory but they were forced to punt after a drive killing combined sack from Jackson Thomas and Elijah Noel. The Titans would get their first crack at offense on the next drive, starting from their own 5 yard line after a great Hall punt. As they do so well, the Titans were able to pound the rock all the way into Red Devil territory as the horn sounded on a surprising scoreless first quarter.
Opening up the second quarter, the Titans gambled on fourth down in SVH territory, however quarterback Andy Myers would get sacked to turn it over on downs to the Red Devils offense. After a forced three and out from the Titans defense, the offense would once again drive down the field, this time capitalizing on a 6 yard score from Nick Huston. A long pass play on the ensuing drive would set the Red Devils up in position to score, but the Titans defense once again would hold and force another punt. With just a little over a minute left in the half, the Titans would put themselves in field goal position on a strike from Myers to Huston, but the 37 yard field goal attempt would be blocked, sending the game to the halftime break at 7-0 favoring the Titans.
M-R would come out of the break starting with the ball after their choice to differ at the beginning of the game. Looking to extend their slim lead, Andy Myers would find Payton Thompson on a key fourth down in Hall territory to extend the drive, while Andrew Way punched in an 8 yard touchdown to double their lead to 14-0. Hall’s offense would get the Red Devils to midfield but a turnover on downs after a failed fourth down conversion set up the Titans for another score before the end of the third quarter, this time on Nick Huston’s second touchdown of the game.
With one quarter to play for the Titans to go to 7-0, Hall’s offense was unable to get anything going to start the fourth quarter. This would set up Payton Thompson to rip off a 58 yard touchdown run to push the lead to 28-0. Hall got themselves on the board on a long touchdown from Aiden Retcliff to Jack Jablonski from 79 yards out, however this score was immediately matched by a Payton Thompson house call from 70 yards out to put the Titans in the driver seat up 35-7. An 86 yard touchdown run from Hall’s Brayden Curran would be the final score in a 35-14 division clinching win for the Titans. In the stat book for Monmouth-Roseville, Payton Thompson led a crowded backfield with 191 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Andrew Way added 76 yards and a touchdown with Nick Huston racking up 84 yards and 2 scores. The undefeated state ranked Titans now shift their focus to a huge home game next Friday night, welcoming the 5-2 Rockridge Rockets to Coach Dobry Field for senior night next week.
