RallyNorth.net

Power running, tough defense the key for Whittier

Saturday, November, 07 By Nick Curcuru
Staff writer

MANCHESTER — Whittier coach Kevin Bradley’s plan against Manchester Essex was simple.

Hold onto the ball.

“We wanted to keep the ball out of their hands,” Bradley said. “Everybody likes to talk about our passing game but we can run it too, I have a lot of confidence in the run game and it worked well today. We played smashmouth football on both sides of the ball.”

The Wildcats, instead of airing it out with area passing touchdown leader Dillon Ryan, chose to rely on their power running game with tailbacks Nick Ferreira and Donald Leighton and the results were spectacular.

Not only did Whittier control the clock, they rang up 269 rushing yards en route to a 30-16 win over the Hornets

With the win, Whittier improves to 9-0 and with a win over Greater Lowell next week, the Wildcats clinch their second straight Commonwealth Conference large title. The Hornets crushed the Wildcats 43-16 a year ago.

“Our line is young but they work so hard,” Bradley said. “We got a great push off the line of scrimmage and opened some huge holes for our backs.”

While the Wildcats offense was good, their defense was even better.

Facing a Hornets team that averaged over 50 points scored in their last four games, Whittier held them in check the entire game, allowing just 179 yards of total offense, most of them coming in the fourth quarter with the game all but in hand.

In the first half, Manchester Essex had negitive-5 yards on the offensive end. Matt Asemota, who had two sacks in the game, paced the Whittier defense.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Wildcats got on the scoreboard with a 1-yard touchdown run from bruising 6-foot, 225-pound fullback Nate Allen (who also ran in three 2-point conversions). The senior fullbacks’ touchdown capped off a 13-play, 71-yard drive that took 7:11 off the clock.

Whittier added another score midway through the third quarter on a wacky play. Ferreira ran 46 yards down to the Manchester 15-yard line before he was stripped of the ball. A Hornet defensive back attempted to jump on the ball inside the 10 but the ball squirted free and rolled into the end zone where Ferreira jumped back on it for a touchdown. An Allen 2-point conversion made it 16-0 Whittier, where it stood after two.

Leighton put the game away for the Wildcats with a 5-yard run early in the fourth quarter making it 24-0. Manchester’s Ben Kekeisen ran back the ensuing kickoff to get the Hornets on the board, but Leighton added another score on the Wildcat’s next possession to kill the momentum.

“This was a total team effort,” Bradley said. “We needed everybody to play well today and everybody did, it was a great game for us.”