T.C. Goes 1-4 After Strong Start to Season
Hunter Langley
On October 12, the Titans lost to Hayfield 59-37 in an attempt to capture a winning record. Junior Robert Longerbeam started his third game at quarterback. After a slow start he lit it up in the second half, playing nearly flawlessly except for one late game interception that did not decide the outcome of the game.
The defense had a tough time stopping Hayfield’s high-powered offense. T.C. played zone defense expecting Hayfield pass like the Hawks did in previous games, zone defense is were the defenders have “zones” and are not trying to cover players man to man. Hayfield exploited this and used it for their running game.
On October 5, the Titans beat rival West Potomac 35-13 in Longerbeam’s second start. The defense thoroughly dominated the Wolverines passing and running game and Longerbeam’s offense was able to get in rhythm and take time off the clock and score. Senior safety Tavarus Brown amazed with both a passing and a kickoff return touchdown.
On September 22, the Titans faced off against the Patriot Pioneers in an attempt to end the then two game losing streak. Patriot was coming off of a blowout win against Charles J. Colgan High School and took a win over the Titans 24-7.
The Patriot defense dominated through and through only allowing one touchdown that came in the end of the fourth quarter . The Titans offense had a trouble both running and passing the football only combining for less than 200 yards of offense in Longerbeam’s first start.
The Titans defense looked impressive for two and a half quarters, only giving up seven points in that time span. By the end of the third quarter however, the Pioneers scored 10 points being led by senior quarterback Chris Sonnenberg.
On September 14th, T.C. travelled to Robinson High School where they faced the undefeated Rams. Senior quarterback Jack Rossi got his first full start of the season and led T.C. to two touchdown drives early in the game, matching Robinson who also scored two touchdowns. The defense however ended up letting Robinson put up almost 400 rushing yards on them in way to a 45-12 win for the Rams.
The Titans offense seemed to get out of rhythm and the Rams kept piling on points. Coach James Longerbeam said “we are going to go back to the basics” for the defense who did in fact play better the following week.
On September 7th, the Titans faced Tuscarora in junior Ricardo Ross’s first start of the season as quarterback. Tuscarora started off the game with a 12-0 lead after two touchdowns.
T.C. rebounded strong scoring a touchdown and made it a 13-7 game. The Titans forced a turnover that gave them great field position, although they fumbled the ball soon thereafter. The momentum shifted back to Tuscarora and the Titans lost 30-7.
