Owls offense leaves Metuchen hanging

How do you spell offense? B-A-C-H-E-L-O-R.

Any day where you get compared to Nate Smith is a good day on the turf, and junior tailback Quawi Bachelor rushed for 208 yards on ten carries and scored five touchdowns, as Highland Park (1-2) recorded its first win of the season in Metuchen.

 

"I'm excited for this win for our team. It helps us get back on track," said Highland Park head football coach Rich McGlynn. "But we have a lot to work on. We are a young team and we need to clean up our mistakes."

 

Metuchen struck early to take a 7-0 lead. Junior running back Errol Lindo capped a seven play, 80-yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown run. Lindo rushed for 125 yards in the first half, but was held to only 19 yards in the second half.

Undaunted, the Owls came right back. Starting from their own 24, sophomore quarterback Quatay Nesmith threw to Mike Long for 14 yards to the Metuchen 38, and on the next play, Bachelor took the pitch from Nesmith and raced 62 yards to paydirt. The extra point failed though, and the Owls trailed 7-6 after the first quarter.

On the Bulldogs' next series, Bachelor made a big impression defensively, intercepting an Anthony Feltre pass and racing 50 yards down to the Metuchen 15. Five plays later he banged into the end zone from six yards out, and Nesmith ran in the conversion to give Highland Park a 14-7 lead.

 

Special teams play set up the next touchdown for Highland Park, as Lindo was hit hard on the ensuing kickoff. Justin Long recovered Lindo's fumble for the Owls, followed by a 24-yard Bachelor run to inside the Bulldogs' ten yard line. On fourth-and-goal, Bachelor took the scenic route on an eight-yard scoring run to give the visitors a 20-7 lead.

 

Metuchen answered with a 63-yard drive, capped by Lindo's six-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 20-14. But with about a minute to play before the half, Bachelor again broke free for a 60-yard run, giving the Owls a 26-14 lead at the half.

The third quarter played out as an offensive stalemate until the final period when the Owls increased their lead to 32-14. Manny McClain took the handoff from Nesmith from the Owls' 37 and ran it for 25 yards into Metuchen territory. As McClain was being tackled, he pitched the ball to wingman Bachelor, who ran the final 37 yards untouched for the score.

 

Metuchen (0-3) got the last word, with a one-yard touchdown plunge by Feltre bringing the final score to 32-21.

 

Despite being plagued by penalties throughout the game -- they were flagged 12 times overall -- McGlynn clearly liked what he saw from his offense. "Quawi has the talent to be better than Nate Smith; only time will tell," the head man said.

"Fatigue played a part with us. With a team like Metuchen you have to put the nail in the coffin and not let them hang around," added McGlynn. "If we don't clean up the mistakes it can cost us."vOn the defensive side, Senior Mike Long "dominated today. I told him he needs to step up, show more emotion and lead by example," stated McGlynn.

 

Nesmith rushed for 31 yards on eight carries and completed four-of-eight passes for 31 yards. He punted twice for 102 yards, including a booming 65-yard punt in the fourth quarter. Despite not playing the first half, junior halfback Tyler Rios rushed for 22 yards on ten carries and ran the opening kickoff of the second half for 49 yards.

 

The Owls received strong defensive play from Jordan Long, Justin Long, Jack Karagan, McClain, Nesmith, Keyon Powell and Patrick Ambrosio.

Next up is a home matchup with Blue Division rival Middlesex on Friday, October 1st.