making it at least five in a row that Holy Spirit has beaten Mainland Regional High School.
The teams do not play often, the last time being in 2013, but there was no doubt which was the better squad Friday evening as the Spartans wracked up 35 points in the first half to start a running clock that quickly ran out on the Mustangs.
Mainland earned just two first downs, managing to score its lone touchdown with just 3:11 left in the fourth quarter. To add insult to injury, Holy Spirit blocked the kick to put an exclamation point on its performance.
Following a rousing rendition of the national anthem by sophomore Alanna Contino, the Mustangs fielded the opening kickoff out to their own 28 yard line but were able to move ahead only 8 yards on a pass and short run.
The punt was short, giving the Spartans the ball at their own 42 yard line.
Holy Spirit running back Dylan Granzow ran right on first down for a 47-yard gain, then scampered untouched up the middle for a 12-yard touchdown to make it 6-0 with 8:41 left in the first quarter. The Spartans missed the kick, but a penalty gave them a second chance and it was good for a 7-0 lead.
Mainland’s Ryder Watson fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving Holy Spirit the ball back with a short field. The Spartans kept it on the ground, including a 16-yard run by Abdul Carrington and Granzow finished it off with a 9-yarder to make it 14-0 with 3:43 left in the first.
Mainland head coach Chuck Smith said the Spartans “came out with energy,” putting points on the board on the first drive and then taking advantage of a turnover.
“We made too many, too costly mistakes in that first half. That early one, a turnover, gave them a short field,” he said.
The Mustangs didn’t fare much better on their next drive. Starting from their own 38, quarterback Crew Russo threw incomplete, running back Lucas DiBiaso lost 3 yards and Russo was sacked for a loss of another 8 yards, forcing a second punt.
The Spartans got back to work on the ground, with Carrington picking up 17 yards on first down and a couple of other backs pitching in to move the chains to the Mainland 28-yard line.
That’s where the Mustangs made their best play of the game when DiBiaso intercepted a pass in the end zone and returned it out to the 15 with 7 seconds remaining in the quarter.
The change of field did not change the fortunes of Mainland, which fed the ball to DiBiaso a couple of times before a Holy Spirit penalty gave the Mustangs their first first down.
The Spartans were flagged for a personal foul on the next play and it looked like the Mustangs were in business with a first down from the Holy Spirit side of the field.
Russo picked up 6 yards on the ground before his pass on third and 4 was tipped and intercepted by Gabe Swain for a 70-yard touchdown going the other way. Holy Spirit was suddenly up 21-0 with 7:33 to go in the half.
“The interception for a touchdown turned it right there, and we’re not quite that good enough yet to overcome those kind of deficits,” Smith said. “Holy Spirit played well, they played hard and deserved to win.”
The score was still manageable but Mainland was not able to move the ball more than 1 yard before having to punt it away again. That’s when everything unraveled for the Mustangs.
A roughing call on the extra point led to a short kickoff and touchback, setting Mainland up at its own 20 yard line. A short run, pass for no gain and batted pass had the Mustangs facing a fourth and long from their own 21 and another punt.
The Spartans proceeded to go on an 11-play drive ending in a fourth touchdown of the first half when running back Dante Franchini hit pay dirt from 5 yards out to make it 28-0 with 35 seconds left.
But the bleeding had not been stanched. Mainland’s special teams muffed the squib kick, giving Holy Spirit the ball at the 47-yard line.
A long pass to Carrington was enough for a fifth touchdown and a 35-0 lead at halftime.
Holy Spirit was not able to move the second-half kickoff far and was forced to punt, setting Mainland up at midfield.
DiBiaso picked up 8 yard on two runs and Russo picked up 4 and a first down at the Holy Spirit 37 yard line, but then DiBiaso was stuffed and Russo threw incomplete and the drive appeared to be fizzling out. But on fourth down and 9, Russo hit Colin Burke for a 34-yard completion and a first down at the 2-yard line.
However, a run for a loss, another for a short gain and a sack brought up fourth down and an incomplete pass ended the drive.
Smith said the lack of a running game was a combination of good defense and poor execution.
“A lot of mistakes up front, you know, and they play good defense too,” he said.
Holy Spirit was not able to move the ball out of the shadow of the goalpost on its next drive, and Mainland was back on offense near midfield.
The Mustangs kept it on the ground for short yardage and Russo picked up the offense’s second first down on fourth and 1, giving Mainland another set of downs.
Russo hit Watson for 2 yards and Nick Colangelo ran for 4 more before the quarterback connected with a receiver for 37 yards down to the 1 yard line. On second and goal, Ben Barrett ran in for a touchdown with 3:11 remaining in the game.
Asked how the team moves forward after putting up only 25 points over four games and giving up 120, Smith said “that’s coaching.”
“When you have the good years, you ride the wave, and the years you’re trying to retool and do whatever, that’s where you earn your money in coaching,” Smith said. “You go back to the drawing board, you look at the film, look at ways we can get better at little things, maybe we’ve got to take some things off the table and just get good at a couple little things.”
Russo said it was “not the outcome we wanted or we expected.”
“We thought we were going to come out here and we were going to be able to dominate,” he said. “It didn’t happen. We just got to execute. We had stuff open, and we just didn’t finish the plays.”
He agreed with Smith that mistakes were costly.
“I missed a couple passes. We missed a couple open runs,” Russo said.
The sophomore said it’s important for the team to move ahead and not look back, since cross-bay rival Ocean City is coming to town Friday evening (6 p.m. kickoff).
“This game’s behind us now. The game’s already over and we have O.C. next weekend. We need to win that one,” he said.
The Mustangs are now 1-3 in the West Jersey Football League. After squeaking out a 7-6 win over Pleasantville in the season-opener, Mainland fell 38-6 to Glassboro and 41-6 to Seneca.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff