Inabilty to score dooms Titans

[KFDM COOP]

Inabilty to score dooms Titans

By Cody Pastorella

The Port Arthur News

A better offensive night for the Memorial Titans at the very least would have made the final score closer against the West Brook Bruins.

Despite having the ball on the Bruins’ side of the 50 seven times, including three drives that started in Bruins’ territory, Memorial was held scoreless while WB found the endzone four times, topping Port Arthur 26-0 on Friday night.

To be blunt, Memorial’s defense did a fine job against a very good Bruins offense. The Titans’ D held WB to just 13 points in the first half, blocking an extra point along the way. Memorial forced two turnovers and handed the ball over to the offense in Bruin territory twice.

Memorial’s special teams ace Solomon Jones even busted off a 56-yard kickoff return that set the Titans up inside Brook’s 40.

Memorial had a drive end inside the Bruins’ 10-yard line, another drive stalled inside the 15, another drive ended with a blocked 33-yard field goal attempt. The Titans also closed the first half with a 31-yard hail mary from Jareal Alexander to K’Sean Wesley. Wesley made an amazing catch and did all he could to score but was stopped cold at the 1-yard line.

Port Arthur just could not score.

Meanwhile, Christine Michael, who was reported to possibly miss the game, scored three touchdowns. His first score came from 1-yard on his first carry of the game, giving WB a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Michael knotched an 8-yard run to give the Bruins a 13-0 lead.

Then in the fourth, after the Titans had kept Michael bottled up for the most part, the senior star broke free for a 79-yard dagger.

Michael’s three touchdowns gave him a total of 13 for his career against Port Arthur.

He finished with 135 yards on 13 carries. Prior to his 79-yarder, Michael had just 56 yards on 12 attempts.

Memorial head coach Ronnie Thompson, who has been on the wrong end of the final score against WB three times now in his reign as the Titans coach, said he thought Memorial’s defense played really hard.

“I thought they did a really good job. They were really steady and held a really good running back in check for a long time. He (Michael) just wasn’t satisfied and he was not going to settle,†Thompson said.

About WB’s defense and Memorial’s offense, Thompson said the Bruins put a lot of pressure on Alexander.

“They put some real good pressure on our offense. We had some miscommunication around their goalline and they just did a great job. Anytime your quarterback is on the run like Jareal was tonight, anytime the quarterback is getting that kind of pressure, the quarterback will start hesitating, missing receivers and so on. They’re just a really good football team.â€

As good as the Brook may be, they gave the Titans a number of opportunities. The Bruins rang up 70 yards in penalties in the second half, basically handing five first downs to Memorial.

Still, all the Titans could manage on offense was 239 yards and 15 total first downs. Alexander accounted for 173, throwing for 139 and rushing for 34 more. He did not turn the ball over for the first time this season, but could not get his team to the endzone.

The Titans came closest to scoring on their final possession of the first half, which was set up by an 18-yard interception return by George Carter.

Memorial started at WB’s 40 and had 22 seconds to score. The first play netted eight yards and took 16 seconds. The second play went 31 yards to Wesley, who caught the jump ball at WB’s 1, wrestled with all his might but was stopped by three Bruins.

Memorial had another shot in the second half. After the Brook’s Christian Louis finished off a quick drive with a 9-yard scamper to stretch the Bruins lead to 20-0, Port Arthur went on its most impressive drive of the game.

Starting from their own 22, the Titans went all the way to WB’s 3 on 12 plays. On third-down-and-five, Alexander scrambled for 12 yards to give Memorial a first-and-goal at the 3-yard line.

Daleon Sinette, who rushed for 54 yards on 11 carries on the night, got stuffed for a loss of two on Memorial’s next play. Then Alexander lost five more on second down. An incomplete pass made it fourth down, and then after chewing more than eight minutes off the clock, the drive came to a close when the ball went over on downs.

On the other side, WB piled up 403 yards on its way to its fourth straight win over the Titans, which puts the series at 4-3 in the Bruins favor.

Louis piled up 207 yards through the air. His favorite target was Ryan Grant, who caught seven passes for 148 yards. The tandom also connected once for 50 yards.

Memorial, which fell to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in District 21-5A, will travel to Channelview next week, needing back-to-back wins in league play in order to have a shot at making the playoffs.

WB, meanwhile, improved to 5-0 and 3-0 and will square off with Baytown Sterling for its next game.

Wesley was probably Port Arthur’s most impressive offensive player against the Brook. On top of his 31-yard effort on the final play of the first half, he also caught two more passes, giving him three receptions for 73 yards on the night.

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

:-[

[bigd92]

??? pitiful offense by the Titans

[82 5A State Champs]

West Brook didn't do much better.

[ozensfinest]

sounds like ozen's offense.........

[Djones8301]

Memorial's Coaching staff is a joke. They do not utilize a bunch of playmakers that they have on offense, and Jareal needs to be replaced at the qb position. He can not get the ball downfield and he locks in on one receiver and when he is not open he gets lost. But also, aside from a couple of kids there is no toughness on this team. My nephew plays on JV and tells me that varsity players cannot be hit at practice nor hit anyone, that explains the lack of decent tackling on this team. Something needs to be done, it is really getting sad.

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Memorial's Coaching staff is a joke. They do not utilize a bunch of playmakers that they have on offense, and Jareal needs to be replaced at the qb position. He can not get the ball downfield and he locks in on one receiver and when he is not open he gets lost. But also, aside from a couple of kids there is no toughness on this team. My nephew plays on JV and tells me that varsity players cannot be hit at practice nor hit anyone, that explains the lack of decent tackling on this team. Something needs to be done, it is really getting sad.

if you cant get hit why practice  ???

[bigd92]

I feel your pain and its eating away at me.