Pats’ offense stays hot in lopsided win over Hope

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 10/27/15

To say that the Pilgrim football team’s offense is operating on another level would be an understatement.

The Pats moved to 4-1 on Saturday afternoon with a 50-14 victory over Hope (1-4), …

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Pats’ offense stays hot in lopsided win over Hope

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To say that the Pilgrim football team’s offense is operating on another level would be an understatement.

The Pats moved to 4-1 on Saturday afternoon with a 50-14 victory over Hope (1-4), sending them to 3-0 on their three-game road trip. The drubbing of the Blue Wave was the third consecutive game that Pilgrim has scored at least 50 points. The Pats have outscored their last three opponents 160-45.

Despite the recent offensive explosion, though, head coach Tom O’Connor said there is still plenty to work on.

“It’s not about the points on the field, it’s not about leaving [them], it’s about the negative plays, the mental breakdowns,” O’Connor said. “It’s the missing our blocks, knowing where we are supposed to be. We’re trying to clean up and get everything polished so we can put a complete game together. For the last couple of weeks we’ve thrown up decent numbers, but for us it’s not the numbers. It’s the number of mistakes we’re making during putting the number up.”

Any cracks in Pilgrim’s armor were hidden by its potent offense, which built a 34-14 lead going into halftime through the air and on the ground. The Pats opened the scoring on their first drive with a methodical 12-play march that culminated in a David McMullen keeper to the left for a touchdown. The two-point conversion was no good, but the offense was just getting started.

After forcing a punt on Hope’s first possession, McMullen was able to convert a second-and-16 to wide receiver Ty Weldon-Martin for a first down in Hope territory at the 44-yard line. That play would foreshadow a decision to go for it on fourth-and-16 from about midfield. McMullen dodged pressure and heaved a pass deep down the left sideline that Weldon-Martin hauled in and took to the end zone.

“I just rolled out and looked for the open man,” McMullen said. “The line provided great protection and we executed.”

The two-point conversion to Darren Grant was good, and Pilgrim jumped ahead 14-0 in the first quarter. McMullen accounted for two touchdowns in the first half to go with 153 passing yards in the first 24 minutes behind an offensive line that allowed very little pressure.

Hope fought back, though, after forcing Sean Cooney to fumble late in the first quarter. Hope running back Jones Mallay was the only player to give the Pats fits, rushing for both scores. His first came early in the second quarter on a 16-yard dash up the middle to bring the deficit to just one score, 14-6.

Pilgrim answered back with its star running back Owen Kelly. Kelly racked up 30 rushing yards on the Pats’ next drive, which ended with his first touchdown of the afternoon on a pitch to the right side. He brought in the two-point try as well to cushion Pilgrim’s lead, 22-6.

“It’s David, It’s Kelly, It’s linemen, they’re starting to play together as a team and when they play together as a team and stop stopping ourselves with the silly penalties, the offsides, the little stuff,” O’Connor said of his team’s offense. “Once we start rolling, we roll. It doesn’t take long for us.”

Defense and special teams made some big plays of their own during the second quarter. On a third-and-7 deep in Pilgrim territory, defensive end Jamal Martey consumed quarterback Juan Nunez for a sack and loss of 13 yards.

The Pats would be forced to punt on their ensuing drive, but the receiver muffed the catch and Michael Matarese fell on the live ball to set Pilgrim up at Hope’s 33. Kelly struck again four plays later when he found a seam up the middle and went untouched for a 20-yard touchdown.

Mallay would gash the defense for a 50-yard score on the first play of Hope’s next drive to pull the Blue Wave within two scores, but Kelly was too much for the defense to handle.

Kelly had 158 rushing yards in the only half he played, with his final play of the game putting the Pats up 34-14. He took a pitch to the left side, but found no running room, forcing him to cut all the way back across the field where he scored a 57-yard touchdown at the right pylon.

Kelly sat out the second half with a leg injury, but O’Connor said he is okay.

“Kelly’s fine,” O’Connor said. “He’s just got a little bruise. At that point [in the game], it’s not worth risking him. We had a 20-point lead, he could have went back in and we kinda held him out.”

Hope drove down to the Pilgrim 12-yard line with just eight seconds left trying to swing momentum going into the half. Nunez threw two incompletions, though, to end the threat, the second of which was knocked down across the middle by Grant.

“Our game planning has been on point all year,” O’Connor said. “Everyone says ‘You guys are offense, you’re struggling defensively.’ The most amount of points we let in was 18 [against Narragansett], you can count Classical at 19, but that was a scoop-and-score, so we only let 11 in on them. Defense isn’t struggling, it’s just right now being outperformed by a high-powered offense that’s been able to do what they wanted to when they wanted to.”

The Pats failed to score in the third quarter, but added two more scores in the fourth. Grant rushed for a 23-yard touchdown with less than 10 minutes to go. Teammate Simon Davis got in on the scoring when he added a score of his own with five minutes remaining. Devon Maxwell’s two-point rush brought Pilgrim to the 50-point threshold again.

Pilgrim’s defense locked down the Hope offense in the second half, holding the Blue Wave to just 14 total yards. Linebacker John Pierce intercepted Nunez across the middle in the final minutes to ice the win.

The Pats return home this Friday to face off against Middletown at 7 p.m. looking to avenge a 50-point loss to the Islanders during their championship run in 2014. Middletown (1-4) has had a rough time defending its Division III title, losing its last two games by a combined 70-28 and sitting near the bottom of the standings.

“I hate making number predictions,” O’Connor said about whether the 50-point streak would continue. “I know last year they did not call off the dogs on us, so it will be very hard for me to hold back if it works out that way. They ran the score up on us with their starters, leaving them out there till the last whistle of the game. If we’re executing, our kids will come out, if we’re at a point where we’re comfortable with the lead. If they’re not executing, they’ll stay in to fix things. We’re trying to get better.”

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