By Cody Pastorella
HOUSTON - With the combination of a sharp offense and smothering defense, the Memorial Titans took a 21-0 lead by the end of the first quarter, letting Westbury and everyone in Butler Stadium know there was a blowout in the making on Saturday night.
And that's exactly what the Titans did, as they went onto slaughter the Rebels to the tune of a 52-14 victory.
Memorial scored 21 in the first, seven in the second, 10 in the third and another 14 in the fourth quarter.
The only negative mark against Port Arthur was the defense allowing Westbury to gain 347 yards of total offense. But, while the yardage piled up for the Rebels, the turnovers did as well, as the Titans recovered three fumbles and grabbed two interceptions, one from Darell Johnson and the other was by Michael Johnson, who picked off Delvon Carpenter in the endzone in the fourth quarter.
From there, the Titans second offensive unit picked up a pair of scores from a 1-yard keeper by Stedman Haynes and a 35-yard burst from Daleon Sinett, who ran wild all through the second half.
The senior tailback gained 102 yards on 10 carries. Memorial had little trouble offensively. And on top of its 426 total yards, the Titans had zero turnovers for the first time this season.
"Not turning the ball over was the biggest thing for us," said Memorial coach Kenny Harrison, whose team improved to 3-1 on the season and will take on unbeaten, No. 6 ranked Woodlands next Friday. "Turnovers have been a big problem all season and it's something we've stressed each week. We've tried making improvements each week and eliminating the turnovers was the key."
Only a week away from facing its toughest opponent to date for this season, Harrison added that he wanted to work on the passing game in Saturday's matchup with Westbury.
For the most part, he said the passing attack was a success. Memorial piled on 187 yards through the air, with 160 of that total coming from Corwin Keal, who was 6-for-15 with a touchdown pass that went for 82-yards on a hookup with
K'Sean Wesley.
That catch and run down the right sideline gave Memorial a 21-0 edge. Wesley finished the contest with 112 yards on three receptions.
Keal also had a productive night on the ground, as he pounded out 51 yards on five carries. He also had a touchdown on a 1-yard keeper in the third quarter, which jumped the Titans lead to a 35-7.
Also scoring for Port Arthur was running back Ronzell King, who had his usual two touchdowns, which gives him eight for the season.
His first trip to paydirt came on a 20-yard dash, which capped off Memorial's opening drive of the contest.
Six plays later, Port Arthur was back in the endzone after a fourth-and-18-yard punt attempt ended with an 8-yard Paul Roy fumble recovery.
A poor deep snap from Westbury made the play possible, as the Rebels punter could not chase the snap down before he was clobbered by a host of Titan defenders.
Trailing 21-0 to open the second quarter, Westbury's offense finally showed signs of life. The Rebels went 79 yards on 14 plays and took 5:08 off the clock. They converted on two fourth downs to continue the drive, which was capped off on a 6-yard carry by Donald Haynes.
Harrison said he didn't like all the yards the defense allowed but explained that most of that total came on Westbury's third and fourth down conversions.
"That is something we will definitely have to do better next week," he said. "We can't allow big plays on fourth down. But we got some turnovers and had the special teams scored a touchdown so that helped out."
Later in the second frame, King tallied his second score on an 8-yard run which brought Memorial's advantage to 28-7.
Memorial opened the second half with a 10-play, 80-yard drive that sucked 3:58 off the clock. That drive ended with Keal's 1-yard keeper.
Hulices Nunez joined in on the fun, adding three points on a 30-yard field goal, which gave the Titans a 38-7 lead.
Westbury trimmed the margin to 38-14 after Jailin Singleton slipped around the leftside for a 5-yard scamper.
The Rebels had 239 yards of offense through the air and 108 on the ground, picking up 18 first downs. It was the most yards and first downs Memorial has allowed all season. Along with its 187 passing yards, Memorial gained 239 yards on the ground and tallied 19 first downs.
