Senior Damani Williams ran for two scores, passed for two and had the decisive Pick 6 in Dwight Morrow's 36-26 win over Pascack Hills on Saturday.
ENGLEWOOD – It was early in the fourth quarter and Pascack Hills was liking its chances. All game long the Broncos had been moving the ball on the ground, controlling the clock and here they were again on another foray deep into Dwight Morrow territory. The score was tied, but Pascack Hills had the chance to seize the lead and really apply the pressure.
And then Damani Williams undercut the route.
Pascack Hills was hoping to fool the defense with a change-up, a throw on first down, but Williams didn’t bite. He flew up from his safety spot, picked off the ball in stride and sprinted 88 yards untouched through the wide expanse of green plastic in front of him.
His ‘Pick 6’ with 8:47 left in the game gave the Maroon Raiders the lead for the first time in the game and for good in a 36-26 victory on a postcard perfect autumn afternoon in Englewood.
“They were looking at that play the last time they had the ball. It was open, but they overthrew it and I knew it was coming again,” said Williams. “I was able to jump it and return it with my speed. It’s a great feeling when it opens up in front of you like that.”
Dwight Morrow was playing from behind for most of the game starting from when Pascack Hills turned a Sam Lundgren fumble recovery deep in its own territory into an 88-yard drive that culminated in a Gavin Ulanday’s 5-yard run and a 7-0 lead that doubled on the Broncos’ next possession when Ulanday scored again, this time from a yard away.
After a scoreless first quarter, Pascack Hills scored twice in less than five minutes to take a 14-0 with 2:49 left in the opening half and the Broncos nearly carried the shutout into halftime, before Williams started to find his groove. The senior quarterback, on a 4th-and-7, scrambled home from 14 yards out with just 48 seconds left in the second quarter. The failed 2-point try, however, left the Maroon Raiders trailed 14-6 at the intermission.
Gavin Ulandy scored twice for Pascack Hills..
“We got off slow. It was an early game, we are not really used to the routine of early games, but we used halftime to make some adjustments and get on the right side of the game,” said Dwight Morrow head coach Joe Hoyle, whose team was the Ivy Division champion last year and is now back to .500 (2-2-1) in the Super Football Conference proper that season. “[Damani Williams] is the heartbeat of our team. When things go bad he does not flinch. That’s what led us to what we accomplished last year and what has gotten us back on the right track this year.”
There was still plenty of work to do in the second half and the Raiders got right after it. On the second play of the third quarter Damani Williams hit a wide open Maurice Williams for a 62-yard catch and run. With no true place kicker, Dwight Morrow went for two again, missed again and settled for a 14-12 deficit.
Unlike the Raiders, who can score from anywhere on the field at any time, Pascack Hills’ approach is a bit more deliberate and the Cowboys used the next 6:46 of clock to expand its lead. Senior quarterback Connor Ohnikian kept the ball and went for a 24-yard score around the left end. The extra point went wide left, the Broncos settled for a 20-12 lead, one that would be erased just two-and-a-half minutes later when Damani Williams connected with EJ Maxwell for a 26-yard score and then hit Maurice Williams for the 2-point conversion that tied the score at 20 with just less than two minutes to go in the third quarter.
Then came Damani Williams’ interception return for a touchdown that put the home team in front.
Maurice Williams caught a TD pass and a 2-point conversion for Dwight Morrow, which is now 2-2-1 on the season.
“The halftime adjustments worked. The coaches told us what we had to do and then it was on us,” said Maurice Williams, who like most of the Raiders’ starters, is a two-way player and moved from linebacker to defensive end in the second half. “I switched to defensive end to try to stop the outside runs, to set the edge and make them turn it back it.”
Pascack Hills had fewer chunk plays in the second half, but still moved the ball effectively. It was driving before Damani Williams stepped in front the pass and again after. The Broncos needed just 3:34 to march right back down the field. Ohnikian scored from the 3 with 5:08 left, but a successful 2-point conversion that would have retied the game was erased by an illegal formation penalty and Maurice Williams picked off the next try to keep the Raiders in front, 28-26.
Dwight Morrow’s final drive was a late-game chess match as, out of timeouts, Pascack Hills left the door open for the Raiders to score, but Arieyon Williams stopped short at the goal line and took a knee to further bleed the clock. Damani Williams, who threw for two scores, ran for two others and had the pick six, eventually punched it in with 2:02 remaining and the defense forced a three-and-out against a hurried final drive by PH to close out the victory.
The loss was a tough one for the Broncos, who have been much more competitive than their 1-4 record might suggest. A non-coop program battling on its own outside the Ivy Division Pascack Hills has played defending Group 2 state champion Westwood tough and was within two scores of Ramsey and one of Mahwah.
Dwight Morrow is back to even on the season and has a chance to run the table in its final three regular season games against Lincoln, Mahwah and Glen Ridge and make a late push for a playoff spot. Heading into Saturday, the Raiders were in 20th position in power points in what will be a 16 team bracket.
“I think we can go far. We all believe that,” said Dwight Morrow two-way lineman Shaquile Creary. “We don’t have a lot of depth, but we are a family. We win together, we lose together, we stick together and we are going to try to make a run.”
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