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St. Mary’s rolls past Woods Tower, 49-15
Warren – Brandon Adams got a taste of what a state title season is like last season as a member of the Clarkston football team.
As a junior at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s this season Adams has become an important ingredient in the Eaglets quest for a state title.
Adams rushed for 102 yards and one touchdown on nine carries, all in the first half, as St. Mary’s ran past Warren Woods Tower for a 49-15 victory in a Division 3 district final on Saturday at Woods Tower.
St. Mary’s (9-2) scored touchdowns on six of its seven first-half possessions to a take a 42-0 lead.
St. Mary’s didn’t qualify for the playoffs last season and that fact doesn’t sit well with one of the state’s top programs. The Eaglets will host Mason (8-3) in a region final next Saturday at 1 p.m.
Mason upset DeWitt (10-1) 30-14 on Friday.
“It’s all my line,” Adams said. “Guys like Jared Mosley and Josh Dabney did the job up front. It’s all about the blocking. It was disappointing for the guys last season. That was a motivating factor in the offseason. We’re fired up. We can’t let up. Our running attack doesn’t fail.”
Adams played on the junior varsity last season before being brought up to the varsity for Clarkston’s Division 1 playoff run to the title.
St. Mary’s gained 337 yards in the first half to 65 for Woods Tower.
Adams had carries of 21 and 29 yards on the game’s first drive to set up Pierce Bauer’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Dwayne Chapman recovered a Woods Tower fumble two plays later and St. Mary’s capitalized as quarterback Brendan Tabone threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Kahlee Hamler.
Two minutes into the second quarter Adams scored on a 2-yard run to give St. Mary’s a 20-0 lead. Lamon Mathison’s interception gave St. Mary’s possession on Woods Tower’s 33 and five plays later Bauer ran 21 yards through the middle of the line for a touchdown and a 35-0 lead.
Tabone, like many of St. Mary’s starters, played just one half and completed all six of his attempts for 116 yards and three touchdowns, two to Hamler.
“We ran the ball pretty well,” St. Mary’s coach George Porritt said. “We’ve got to do what we do.”
For Woods Tower (8-3) quarterback Darius Jordan had a 2-yard touchdown run and quarterback Gary Osowski threw a 11-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Zannetti.
“We had a couple of bad snaps, and a couple of fumbles early,” Woods Tower coach Mike Mahar said. “You can’t do that against a team like St. Mary’s. We just got to come back (next year). It’s a process. We made the playoffs last year (6-4 record) and we got past the first round this year.”
