Tough night at the office: Mount Si football takes on challenging Newport Knights

What looked like anybody’s game turned into a tough uphill slog under driving rain for the Mount Si varsity football team on Friday, Oct. 24. The Wildcats held the edge on the road against Newport for almost the entirety of the first half, but the second half was practically all the Knights, who, with running back Paul Wells’ fast legs, gradually claimed an insuperable lead.

October 28, 2014 7:07 pm

What looked like anybody’s game turned into a tough uphill slog under driving rain for the Mount Si varsity football team on Friday, Oct. 24.

The Wildcats held the edge on the road against Newport for almost the entirety of the first half, but the second half was practically all the Knights, who, with running back Paul Wells’ fast legs, gradually claimed an insuperable lead.

At the outset, the Wildcats received, and wide receivers Parker Dumas and Caleb Mitchell and running back Max Bonda ran it downfield to the Knights’ one-yard line before sophomore Cory Cotto caught a short pass to score. Newport answered with the first of many fast, long runs to score.

The Wildcats went three-and-out in the next drive, but stopped the Knights’ drive in turn.

Colton Swain caught a long pass from Hillel to make it first and 10 on the Knights’ 15-yard line, 27 seconds into the second quarter. A Wildcat drive culminated in a 15-yard touchdown pass by quarterback JoJo Hillel to Dumas. The Knights were able to block the point after, marking the end of Wildcat scoring in the first half—with possession just seconds before the half, a Hail Mary pass by Hillel failed to connect after the buzzer. In the fourth quarter, Hillel passed to Dumas for a one-yard score. Parker Swain got the following pass for a two-point conversation. Mount Si last got on the boards during the fourth with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Hillel to sophomore Bonda, making it 27-47. The final score was 54-27.

“It’s always tough to come out and not do what you were planning to do,” said Dumas. “That’s frustrating for us.” At the half, “everyone was ready in the locker room. That was a football game, coming out.We talked about playing with heart, coming out and trying to finish a football game, playing four quarters of football. We just didn’t do it.”

“Parker ran a good route, and they tried to double team him, so I was wide open,” said Sean Hyland, who caught a second-half pass to keep things moving, “and then I just got down the field, got my eyes on the ball and hooked it in.”

“They’re a good team,” Hylands said of the Knights. “They wore us down in the second half. We had our chances. We had a lot of third downs and short and fourth downs and short, but we didn’t convert. We didn’t keep our defense off the field enough.”

“You’ve got to watch the ball more, for sure. You’ve got to be more focused when it’s raining like this,” Hyland said. “I thought our guys did a good job today. We had maybe one drop, but that’s pretty good, considering the conditions. I just go out there and try to play hard, no matter what, no matter what the score is,” Hylands said, explaining his philosophy. “I try and play for my teammates, this being my last year with these guys.”

“We’ve got one more week,” said Dumas. “We just want to get the team together. We want to come out with Liberty and really show them what we’ve got—kind of a redemption.”

• Mount Si finishes its regular season this Friday, Oct. 31. The Wildcats play at Liberty, game time is 7 p.m.

Follow Mount Si football at http://mtsihsfootball.com/default.asp.