HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Snyder vs Weequahic

If Weequahic was looking for some sort of sign that its offense had finally arrived after five relatively quiet quarters, it came with a dramatic flare that might have been even too outlandish for Hollywood.

The banks of floodlights at Untermann Field went suddenly dark late in the first quarter after Weequahic had just punted to Snyder. Twenty three minutes later, light was restored and play resumed.

On the first snap, Snyder struck with an 84-yard touchdown pass from DJ McClary to John Hopson to knot the score and probably make Weequahic feel as if it were still trying to find its way in the dark.

The Indians punted away their subsequent possession after that touchdown, but then finally located their power source with the running of Rashawn Marshall, the efficient passing of Lamont Spates and the overall athletic sparkle of Ihsim Smith-Marsette.

Weequahic scored on seven of its next eight drives with generous helpings of speed, power and rugged defense as it rolled to a 52-6 victory over the Tigers in a Super Football Conference-National White Division battle Friday night in Newark.

“We just listened to our coaches and stayed ready because the lights are gonna come back on eventually,” Smith-Marsette said. “So we had to stay ready and stay hard to get back on that field.”

Marshall had capped Weequahic’s opening drive of the evening with a 1-yard touchdown run, and he got its second series off to a blistering start with a 44-yard run into Snyder territory. But a flurry of penalties followed by an errant snap on a third-and-nine play eventually doomed that drive.

Those were the kinds of things that had plagued the Indians (3-0) the previous week in a 6-2 win on the road against Verona. Defense was king that night for Weequahic, and was royalty agains Friday behind the gritty efforts of Ihsim Marsette, who came down with two interceptions, Quentin Reid, who had three sacks, and teammates such as Zakai Armstrong, Tyheed Simmons and Khair Chancey.

“We came in and had to shut down the quarterback (McClary), keep him contained because we knew how fast he was. We came in with the mindset to shut him down,” Reid said.

While the defense was shutting things, Weequahic’s offense was taking advantage of both turnovers and field position that improved more and more as the night wore on.

Marshall rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries, Spates hit on 5 of 6 passes for 85 yards, both to Smith-Marsette in the second quarter to push the Indians to a 21-6 lead.

Smith Marsette pulled in a 21-yard TD pass on a bullet across the middle with 6:01 to go in the half, and made an excellent catch on a fade in the end zone 2:14 later despite heavy coverage. He scored his third TD with an 88-yard interception return for a 35-6 lead with 7:27 remaining in the third quarter.

Weequahic would have enjoyed just a little bit of that pop last week for some additional breathing room against Verona, though secured it with hard-hitting defense. The Indians picked up a forfeit victory over Asbury Park in Week 1, so were playing their first game then against an opponent playing its third.

“Last week were missing a couple key players and we had to get a groove,” Smith-Marsette said. “Made some minor mistakes that we fixed this week in practice and were able to execute out here today.”

Marshall ran 20 times for 127 yards and the game’s only touchdown last week against Verona, though said timing issues and penalties hampered his team’s productivity that night.

“Last week we had a lot of mental mistakes on our line. This week I made sure my O line was on the same page and they were ready to dominate. That’s what they did,” the speedy Marshall said of Hashim Muhammad, Sheick Swaray, Uriel Saldona, Ronces Martinez and Emanuel Sales.

Marshall said the difference in the two games was how the team seized upon opportunity.

“Last week when we had our momentum, we took a step back. This week we weren’t taking any steps back. We were straightforward,” he said.

Snyder fumbled on the third play of its drive to open the second half and Armstrong recovered for Weequahic at the Snyder five-yard line. The Indians lost three yards on second down, but Marshall made it up and then some with a 7-yard TD run off left end for a 28-6 lead after the second of five PAT by Ibrahim Cisse. The sophomore also kicked a 27-yard field goal later in that quarter for a 38-6 lead.

Backup QB Paul Jones III, a freshman, raised the lead to 45-6 with a 12-yard pass to Elijah Motley with 1:56 to go in the third. Junior Leroy Singleton closed things out with a 46-yard TD run with 2:50 left in the game.

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Mike Kinney can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeKinneyHS.

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