Canes Rip Crawford for Winning Streak

The young Monticello varsity football ‘Canes took a giant step in making winning a habit by downing the Eagles of Crawford County 41-18.

The 41 points were the season high for the Canes and made for some very tired cheerleaders who do a push-up for each point whenever the ‘Canes score to make a total of 145 push-ups for the night.
A large homecoming crowd with a new expectation of victory was on hand to enjoy perfect football weather and a match against the winless Eagles.

The Monticello defense stopped Crawford on their first series and after a 16 yard punt had the ball on their own 46. Two long runs by Sadarius Rooks and a 7-yard scamp by Chris Thomas placed the ball on the Eagles four. Rooks wasted no time in finding the end zone and with the Erik Enrique XP made the score 7-0 which the fresh cheerleaders quickly counted off. Monticello again held the Eagles on the next possession, but fumbled fielding the punt on the Canes 20.

The Eagles advanced on short runs and a face mask penalty to get a first and goal at the 6 yard line, but the Monticello defense made their stand here and after a tackle for loss by De’atrius Stone, Timmy Postlethwait recovered a fumble on the Monticello 16. Rooks ran it out to the Monticello 38 and on the next play Chris Thomas dodged and darted for a 62 yard TD run with 18 seconds left in the quarter and a 14-0 Canes lead.

The second quarter started well for the ‘Canes with Deonte Norwood recovering an Eagles fumble on the Crawford 28.

A 16-yard reception by Adrian Campbell took it to the 12 where Rooks again found pay dirt on the next play. However, this stirred the Eagles to fight back and their next possession ended with a score after two long passes and two Monticello penalties. The extra point try was wide left and with 4:51 in the half the score was 21-6.

The Eagles continued with their squib kick strategy which gave Skyler Blankenship more return running opportunities than he has had all season. He ran the ball to the Monticello 40, but a holding penalty soon had the Canes in a 2nd and 20 pickle. This was erased by a 31 yard McMichael to Adrian Campbell pass.
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The next play demonstrated why S. Rooks is one of the best running backs in the region when he dragged four Eagle defenders 14 yards to another Cane first down on the 25. An 11-yard power run by A.J. Thomas set up Rooks to cross the goal line for his third TD of the half. Enrique delivered on his fourth XP of the half with Monticello up by 22.

The ‘Canes kept up their tempo in the third quarter. Blankenship again fielded the short kick and gave Monticello good field position at their 43.

An 8 yard run by A.J. Thomas was followed by a block in the back penalty to push the ‘Canes back to their 48. Chris Thomas then took the ball and danced around the right side all the way down to the Eagles 36. The next play was a replay of the McMichael to Adrian Campbell passing attack magic for the TD. The XP was blocked, but now the ‘Canes led 34-6.

The Eagles answered with a long drive of their own and cut the score to 34-12. However, Crawford again kicked to Blankenship who gave the ‘Canes great field position at their own 45. The tag team running of A.J. Thomas and S. Rooks quickly brought the ball down to the Eagle 15 where McMichael found Billy Edwards all alone in the end zone for another ‘Cane score and a 41-12 lead.

The Monticello cheerleaders did their last 41 push-ups with the crowd calling out the numbers for the truly “pumped up” girls. The Eagles answered again with a TD to make the score at the end of the third quarter 41-18.

The high point of the fourth quarter saw the only Monticello punt of the night by A.J. Thomas Monticello roll 51 yards to the Eagle 3.

The Monticello homecoming happiness continued to the end of the game when the Eagles fumbled on the ‘Canes one yard line giving Rooks a chance to add a 69 yard run to his season yards total and ended with McMichael taking a knee on the Crawford 30.

Rooks ended the night with a stunning 201 yards in just 18 carries for an average gain of 11.2 yards per touch and surpassed 1,000 yards for the season.

“We didn’t have a good weeks practice so I was surprised by the way we came out to play,” said Monticello head coach Eddie Roberts.
“We just didn’t show the intensity or focus with all the distractions of homecoming week. Former player and Coach Jimmy Jordan was our speaker at the pre-game dinner and spoke to the boys about the Monticello tradition of playing hard and with playing with class. I think that is when the boys zeroed in on the game.”

“The offensive line was outstanding at blocking at the edges and allowed Sadarius Rooks and Chris Thomas to have some big runs. Brady McMichael ran the offense well and made some good throws, especially to Adrian Campbell who made the big catches.
Ellis Ammons and A.J. Thomas played some good defense and Skyler Blankenship was all over the field and made some good solid runs on kick-offs.”

“Lamar is coming to town for our Senior Night next week and Lamar has a lot of emotion coming into the game. If they beat us, they will clinch the number two spot in the region.

No team has run the ball on Lamar this year and they have probably the best quarterback in the area. I hope our fans will come out and cheer for the Canes as we celebrate Senior Night.

Our senior football players are Ellis Ammons, Sadarius Rooks, Adrian Campbell, Erik Enrique, Travis Hulsey, Martin Sands, Chris Sands, Josh Thomas, Josh Franklin and Robert Harris.

It is hard on seniors to have a coaching change, but I am pleased with their buy-in on what I wanted to achieve with them. I wish them the best of luck in their future.”

Stats versus Crawford Co.

Rushing
S. rooks 18-201yds
C.Thomas 9-120yds
A.J. Thomas 7-43yds
D. Harmon 2-7yds

Passing
B. McMichael 4 of 9, 98 yds and 2 TD
Receiving
A. Campbell 3 or 83yds
Billy Edwards 1 for 15 yds

Penalties
Monticello 12 for 84 yds
Crawford 5 for 21 yds
Monticello total yds 471 17 1st downs
Crawford total yds 338 13 1st downs