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By DAUCY CRIZER, Special to the News

After a sluggish start, Memorial pulled away behind a strong running attack to post a 34-0 shutout of Beaumont United in the District 9-5A opener for both schools Friday night at Memorial Stadium.

It was a Homecoming win for the Titans. During the halftime ceremony, Karmen Nixon was crowned Homecoming Queen and football player Taveon Chapman was named Homecoming King.

“We’re happy with the win for sure, but we’ve been not practicing well on Monday’s and it definitely showed tonight,” said Memorial coach Brian Morgan. “It’s something that we will have to improve on going forward, both as coaches and players. We have to be focused for the entire week.”

The duo of Ja’coryn Baker and Amante Martin led the way on the ground for the Titans. Baker rushed for 129 yards 10 carries and scored a touchdown. Martin rushed nine times for 128 yards and two scores. Alex Eugene also rushed for 52 yards on six carries and scored a touchdown. As a team, Memorial rushed for 361 yards.

“Amante (Martin) is a special player, but more than that, he’s a special kid,” said Morgan. “He has a great personality, always smiling. He was hyped up in the locker room at halftime trying to get the rest of the guys pumped up for the second half. That’s just the type of person he is.

“We have three really good running backs (Ja’coryn Baker and Alex Eugene), and they all are very unselfish. They know that it could be any one of them on a given night that might have a great game. They all support each other and rotate in and out of the game on their own.”

Leading 7-0 at the half, Memorial received the second half kickoff and marched right down the field for a score. Eugene’s kickoff return out to the United 49 put the Titans in good field position. It was only fitting that he capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 14-0.

Memorial (4-1, 1-0) put together another scoring drive on its next possession. Baker closed out the third quarter with a 25-yard run to the United 33. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Baker scored on a 33-yard touchdown run.

He looked to be tackled for a loss, but his knee never touched down and the officials never blew a whistle, so he kept running with the Timberwolves defense looked confused as to why he was still running. That extended the Titans lead to 20-0 as the extra point was blocked.

Martin iced the game for the Titans with a 68-yard touchdown run. The score was set up by a Braylon Chaney interception. That put Memorial up 27-0 with 10:28 left in the fourth quarter.

“I saw the position of the defensive end and I knew I could get past him. Then running down the sideline I looked at the defender coming over to tackle me and his eyes got really big, so I knew he really didn’t want to tackle me, so I just kept going until I got to the end zone,” said Martin in describing his 68-yard touchdown run.

The Titans closed out the scoring when quarterback Jordan Jones called his own number for a 5-yard TD to make the final margin 34-0 with 5:30 left in the game.

It was a slow start offensively for both teams in the first quarter. United received the opening kickoff and was forced to punt after a three-and-out.

Martin ripped off a 19-yard run on the Titans first play from scrimmage to the United 38. However, the drive stalled there, and the Titans punted the ball back to the Timberwolves.

After another failed drive by United, Memorial was looking to get something going on its second drive. Jones completed a pass to Keavon Roberts for 12 yards to the United 30. Jones was intercepted by Aston Henry two plays later to thwart that scoring threat.

With United forced to punt from its own end zone, Memorial was the beneficiary of good field position at the Timberwolves 24 following a good return by Semaj Pierre.

The Titans didn’t waste this opportunity. Martin scored on an 18-yard touchdown run to give Memorial a 7-0 lead with 24 seconds left in the second quarter.

Neither team scored in the second quarter, so the score remained 7-0 heading into the locker rooms at halftime.

Memorial had another promising drive going midway through the second quarter. Ja’coryn Baker had a 23-yard run on fourth-and-one to the United 27. On fourth-and-11, Jones was intercepted by Miles Andrews to turn the ball over to the Timberwolves.

THE PLAY OF THE GAME WAS…
Junior Amante Martin’s 68-yard touchdown run. He broke through the right side of the offensive line, broke a tackle to get to the sideline, split two defenders at about the 20 yard line before gliding into the end zone. That score put the Titans up 27-0 early in the fourth quarter.

THE GAME BALL GOES TO…
The game ball is going to need to be divided. Ja’coryn Baker rushed for a game-high 129 yards and one touchdown. Amante Martin rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns. The defense didn’t allow United to score and limited the Timberwolves to just 102 yards of offense.

KEY STATS…
Memorial’s Jordan Jones rushed for 52 yards on 11 carries and one touchdown. He completed just 2 of 11 passes for 18 yards with two interceptions. Keavon Roberts had two catches for 18 yards. United QB Rapheal Deshotel completed 10 of 23 passes for 63 yards with one interception. Derrian Anderson rushed for 45 yards on 16 carries and caught three passes for 36 yards.

UP NEXT…
Memorial hits the road for a district game at Galveston Ball next Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Beaumont United has a bye next week before hosting Galveston Ball on Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.