NORTH EASTON, Mass. — For starters, there was a lot to like for Oliver Ames head coach Ed DeWitt.
The Tigers rushed for just under 300 yards, scored on four of five drives during the middle quarters, recorded six sacks, and forced three turnovers in a season-opening win, 41-12, over visiting Brookline at Muscato Stadium.
OA opened the game with an eight-play, 62-yard drive capped by a rushing touchdown from senior Chad Silva, and the Tigers never trailed in the contest. Silva finished with 161 yards on just 17 carries with a pair of touchdowns. Defensively, senior Jake Manthous finished with four sacks, including one strip sack, and both senior Jack Perron and sophomore Thomas Whiteside had an interception.
“For the most part, I’m pretty happy,” DeWitt said. “There’s definitely stuff we can improve on but it’s Week 1, it’s going to happen. I thought there was some resiliency early, a couple of things didn’t go our way, a couple of drives don’t go our way. But we fought back which is something we’ve talked to this group a lot about, not letting one thing get us down.”
Penalties deterred the Tigers on their second and third drives, a total of nine plays that netted positive three yards because of holding penalties. But OA’s defense was up to the task all night, limiting the visitors to 175 total yards and just 2-for-10 on third down.
Brookline started its second drive of the game in OA territory but on third down, Perron jumped the route just inside his own 20-yard line for the interception to end the Warriors’ biggest threat of the first half.
OA’s offense clicked into gear on the fourth drive again. A healthy dose of Silva — five carries for 48 yards — helped the Tigers move the sticks. Senior quarterback Wayne Casey converted a second and long with a 22-yard pass to Jordan Young (who had two sacks defensively), and on the next play, Silva raced to the end zone from 24 yards out and, after a success point attempt from Nick Ferrini, a 14-0 lead with 5:02 left in the first half.
“It’s nice having him, it’s a guy we can trust,” DeWitt said of Silva, a three-year starter. “He knows our stuff, I can bring up something from two years ago, a play that we had and he allows us to get it in pretty quick. We have some pretty intelligent guys, a lot of studious guys and he’s right up there. He runs hard and he’s tough to tackle.”
A tackle for a loss on second down from Jaden hinton followed by Manthous’ first sack on third down forced Brookline into a quick punt and OA wasted little time moving the ball. Jaden Graham drew a pass interference call on the first play and on the next play, Casey rolled out right, eluded a tackle, and came back left before firing across the field to Whiteside, who was left all alone, and he scampered for a 56-yard touchdown and a 20-0 lead for the hosts going into halftime.
A first down sack from Manthous pushed the Warriors back on the opening drive of the second half and a big heave down field was hauled in by Whiteside, and he returned it 25 yards into Brookline territory.
Although OA gave it right back on an interception of its own, Hinton broke up a screen attempt and Manthous recorded a second down sack, and Brookline was forced to punt once again.
“We made some good plays [on defense],” DeWitt said. “Those interceptions we got were timely because they were in our end, one in the red zone. Those are great plays, [defensive coordinator] coach [Mark] Lenehan does a great job getting them ready. For the most part, I thought we pursued really well, tackled pretty strongly, and our coverage was good all night so I was happy about that.”
Runs from Jack Morley, Whiteside, Henry Mirrione, and Silva produced a pair of first downs, Silva scampered for 29 yards into the red zone, and Casey used a bootleg misdirection keeper to go in from six yards out to make it 27-0.
Brookline got on the board late in the third, converting a fourth down for a score. On 4th and 1, junior quarterback Joshua Karp hit classmate Andrew Bamberg on a quick slant and he broke free for a 56-yard score.
It didn’t take long for OA to respond as sophomore Harold Smith had a big kickoff return all the way to the Brookline 18-yard line. DeWitt rewarded him with his first carry of the night and he was able to bounce it outside to the right and sprint to the end zone for a touchdown on the first play of the drive, making it 34-6.
Manthous put an exclamation mark on his big night on the final play of the third quarter, breaking free from his block to record the strip sack and Giovanni Delarosa recovered to get OA the ball back going into the fourth.
“He was injured last year, he was a little bit lighter but he put in good work during the offseason,” DeWitt said of Manthous. He works hard, he hustles, and he’s a big second part of the play kind of guy. If he doesn’t get you at the beginning, he’s got a big motor and I think he played both ways almost all night.”
Junior CJ Crocker capped the scoring for the Tigers with a 19-yard touchdown with two minutes to play to make it 41-12.
Oliver Ames football (1-0) is home again next Friday when they entertain Quincy at 7:00.