Florence football tackles another challenge

By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
    Three steps.
    That’s all it took for the Florence junior running back Marcus Rawls to get his motor going and break off a 54-yard run on the Florence Township Memorial High boys’ varsity football team’s second offensive play in last Friday night’s home game versus New Egypt.
    With those explosive three steps, Flashes’ boys’ varsity head football coach Joe Frappolli and his creative staff knew that Rawls’ injuries had healed and that he was ready to take center stage in their master plan and what ultimately turned out to be a convincing 27-7 win over a previously undefeated New Egypt squad.
    Time after time, Rawls used his blazing speed and dazzling cuts to run right past Warrior defenders for long outside runs. And when all was said and done, he had two touchdowns and 229 yards rushing on 21 carries for his finest high school game of his young career. But the Florence coaches and Rawls’ teammates weren’t surprised.
    “Marcus got a little dinged up, but this week in practice he started to look like his old self. He’s got great speed and he’s got great moves and he came to play tonight (Friday) and that was our game plan to try to feed him the ball. They took our fullback (Mike Staton and inside game) away, but they weren’t going to take away everything. We did a great job of cracking on the outside,” noted Frappolli.
    But Rawls’ long first-quarter run was just one of the highlights of a Flashes’ 10-play, 85-yard scoring drive, which was made complete when Florence quarterback Jimmy Martinson hooked up with 6’ 4” tight end Bryant Watts for a 13-yard score with 4:41 left in the first quarter.
    With just over five minutes left in the first half, Florence scored again when Martinson, using some nifty footwork, made a brilliant move to his right to free himself up for a 4-yard touchdown toss to Steve Muni (two receptions for 12 yards) in the right side of the end zone. Moreover, Josh Stillwell (five catches for 50 yards) caught two first downs on the drive.
    On New Egypt’s ensuing possession, Florence’s smothering defense knocked Warriors’ star Langston Lacroix back for a 1-yard loss on first down. Then Lacroix gained just 2 yards on the next play. But you can’t keep a great player like Lacroix down forever and on third and eight, New Egypt quarterback Brian Hamilton found Lacroix open along the left sideline. Lacroix broke a tackle at midfield and then won a foot race to the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown.
    But following Lacroix’s score, Rawls would also not be denied. And even after he had a 30-yard run wiped out because of a holding penalty he came back with a long third down run for a first down. Rawls lost at least another 100 yards in runs because of penalties but he never let his team’s mistakes change his game.
    “Coach Frappolli told us to keep our heads up and keep on battling because we knew it would be a tough game today,” said Rawls.
    After a couple of more big Stillwell catches, Florence worked the ball into scoring position but failed to connect on an attempted pass into the end zone. Before the half ended, Watts attempted a 37-yard field goal, but it went wide left by a couple of feet. Suddenly, a half, which Florence had so thoroughly dominated, ended with the Flashes up by just 6 points against the best comeback team in the Freedom Division.
    “At halftime basically we told them we’re beating them up and down the field and they’re just one play away from tying us and going ahead,” said Frappolli.
    After a long run by Ernest Curry (who also caught a Martinson pass for 5 yards) on the second half kickoff, Rawls made a dazzling move during a 55-yard touchdown run which left a New Egypt defender grabbing at air. Martinson then added the 2-pointer on a keeper and Florence pumped its lead to 21-7. Martinson played an unbelievable game and was 10-for-13 for 115 yards throwing.
    On New Egypt’s next possession, Kevin Jiras sacked Hamilton for a 2-yard loss on a 3rd-and-11 play and the Warriors were forced to punt. It was just a sign of things to come.
    Lacroix booted a long punt and Florence took over on its own 3-yard line. A Flashes player fumbled on first down. New Egypt recovered the ball just 11 yards away from the end zone.
    On first down, Florence’s Chucky Taylor, who played both ways and had a 10-yard reception, knocked Lacroix back for a loss. By fourth down the Warriors had worked the ball down to just behind the 5-yard line. All eyes shifted to Hamilton as he received the ball a few yards behind the line of scrimmage.
    Would he throw or would he try to run for the touchdown? He would do neither. Because Jiras sacked Hamilton for a 5-yard loss.
    “It was fourth down and nobody blocked me. I came in and saw him (Hamilton) and took advantage of it right away. I knew it was going to be big and that was the turning point of the game,” said Jiras, who along with Jimmy Narkun and the rest of the Flashes’ defensive line, dedicated the game to Florence coach Peppi Pichette, who missed the game because of a family matter.
    “(To get in) I used my moves that my coach who couldn’t be here tonight, Peppi Pichette, taught me.”
    Jiras’ tackle took a lot of the steam out of the Warriors attack. After that Florence went on a 90-yard time-consuming touchdown drive, which started with 6:24 left in the third quarter and ended with Rawls scoring on a 2-yard touchdown with 9:34 left in the fourth quarter. Sean Harris (five rushes for 33 yards), a tough compact runner, sprinkled in some solid runs along the way. But the damage was done mostly on Rawls’ runs.
    “My touchdowns were nothing special. I say it was all because of my offensive line (Jiras, Ian Groover, Bobby Braun, Dahon Taylor, Muni, Watts and others). Without them I would have gotten nothing. I was reading off of my offensive line blocks and finding the holes,” said Rawls, who actually patterned his running style after Lacroix and another former Florence superstar running back named Quentin Loftin. “I still look up to Quentin. He’s my hero. He used to say to me when everything is going bad keep your head up and that’s when you’ll break one. And that’s what my offensive line helped me do today.”
    Only Florence’s offensive line helped Rawls break more than one.
    It also helped Mike Staton gain 11 yards while Daquan Chapman (6 yards), Stillwell (3 yards) and Korey Linico (4 yards) all helped the Flashes chew up the clock with solid runs in the second half. As always, Frappolli had nothing but respect for New Egypt head coach Tom Farrell and his Warriors.
    “They’re doing a great job over there, but we feel pretty good about our program too. Our guys realized that this was a big, big game and we were not going to let someone come into our yard and dominate. Early in the game we ran the flanks and threw the ball. And in the second half we pounded them,” said Frappolli, who gave New Egypt credit for putting together a solid game plan without its star quarterback and standout defender Dakota Havens.
    Besides the penalties, Florence played great on both sides of the ball and did a lot of wonderful things on defense in the second half to hold Lacroix (66 yards rushing) in check.
    Frappolli was so happy with the win that he started his post-game speech by shouting, “I love this football team!!” He still remembers some of the experts predicting a down year for his club at the beginning of the season. But after five games, Florence is 4-1 and getting better and better with each game. Friday’s game was the best.
    “It’s nice to see this team come of age. We still have some big games left to play — and who the heck knows what’s going to happen — but I thought we took a big step today and we just wanted it a little more,” said Frappolli, whose team picked up a lot of power points with the win.
    Florence is scheduled to host Bordentown on Friday night.