Ciaramitaro leads defense in stopping speedy Hurricane offense
Shenandoah – The Highlanders knew it success would be determined by how well its defense played and well was a bit of an understatement.
Friday night at WoodForest Bank Stadium the defense surrendered a touchdown, quarterback Blaine Gillespie pass for a touchdown and rushed for another to help the Woodlands collect its first win of the season by downing Hightower 30-7.
With the win, the Highlanders improve to (1-1,0-0) while Hightower fell to (1-1, 0-0).
“Well this is third time we played Hightower. The last two times its been a double overtime game and a one touchdown game. You know coming in you’re going to face a tough opponent with a lot of tradition. They know how to win. coming in i felt like it going to be a tough game. They have seven returning starters on the defense from last year.
The Highlanders front seven which included linebackers Ben Gilstrap, Cole Little, Mike Ciaramitaro, Tanner Birdsong, Nose guard Cody Burkett, defensive linemen Matt Miller, and Clayton Lowell, dominated the Hurricanes offense. In fact, several plays was a result of loss yardage or stops for no gain.
“We just keyed in on the quarterback,” says Woodlands linebacker Mike Ciaramitaro. We notice once he broke the pocket, he was a dangerous runner and we had to attack that and our coaches did a very good job of preparing us this week for a good Hightower team. Were coming together each game, its only week two. We did drills on open field tackling this week.”
Gillespie led the Woodlands offense on 13-of-25 passing with 89 yards and rushed for 104 yards on 12 carries. Up by 2-points on the strength of a safety, his 16-yard strike was surprisingly enough for the win.
The touchdown was setup when LB Cole Little intercepted Hurricanes QB Delveince Chandler at the 33 yard line of Hightower and returned it to the 18. Two lays later, Houston Brown was on the receiving end of the touchdown, as the Woodlands increased its lead 9-0 after kicker Alex Garcia’s extra point kick.
Meanwhile the Hurricanes who gained a total 156 offensive yards, struggled to get much of anything going. Mainly, due to the Highlanders defense.
“We didn’t jell on offense but we had a little success last week, and i think we got a little comfortable. We didn’t play like we should have on offense. Defense did a great job but they got tired but i want make up any excuses about them getting tire. We have to learn to fight through adversity. At halftime i thought we still had an opportunity to get in this game but the mental mistakes hurt us,” said Hightower coach Padriac McGinnis.
It wasn’t until late in the first quarter when Hightower settled down and drove 66 yards, trimming the score 9-7 on Chandlers one-yard run with 11:51 left in the second quarter. Chandler’s 31-yard run down to the Highlanders 30 keyed the drive, followed by a late hit which pushed the ball to the 15.
Hightower’s defense held up at times but was a victim of its offenses circumstances. Costly turnovers kept its defense on the field without much time to rest.
Hightower held possession of the ball own its five yard line, just before Highlanders Mike Ciaramitaro rushed in from his linebacker position and delivered a crushing blow to running back Jaquinn Henderson, causing him fumble and lose possession of the ball at the five yard line where DB Tyler Patrick picked up the loose ball and sprinted into the end zone to give the Highlanders a 16-7 lead.
“Our coaches just gave us a good game plan and we scouted them pretty hard this week and we were watching video every day. We were hitting every day. We knew they would be a physical team so we just had to step up our game coming off the lost to Skyline,” Highlanders linebacker Tanner Birdsong said.
The Hurricane offensive woes continued as it stalled on it next two drives.
That gave the Woodlands time to engineer another scoring drive before halftime. Patrick covered a punt and raced 54 yards down to the Hightower 15. A couple plays later, RB Patrick Carr turned a short reception into 15 yard touchdown with 37 seconds left, and up 23-7.
