The Matawan Regional High School football team listened to the wisdom of its coach.
The Huskies shook of a loss during opening week and focused on Red Bank Regional High School on Sept. 15.
Matawan was guided by the powerful running of DeVonte Spann and scored a 20-7 victory at Red Bank’s field.
“One game at a time,” Matawan coach John Kaye said. “One game at a time. We’re going to watch film, and as a staff, we’ll start to focus on a really good Monmouth Regional team that we have to face next week (Sept. 22).”
Spann rushed for 195 yards and scored three touchdowns on the night.
“I was always taught by my father to keep my feet churning during my runs,” Spann said. “I was just doing that tonight, and it led to big plays for my team.”
Kaye was pleased with his running back and his line. Kaye sought a more physical approach from his Huskies after Matawan had been handled by a strong Saint John Vianney High School team, 69-7, on Sept. 8 during the opening weekend of the season.
“We try to think that we have to be physical and pound the rock a little bit,” Kaye said. “We’re an inexperienced football team, so until we develop some consistency in some of the things that we want to do, we’re going to have to be a physical, pound-the-rock kind of team. So, we’ll keep running the ball until someone stops us.”
Kaye praised his defensive staff for being able to halt Red Bank Regional’s ground attack.
“We had a really good game plan,” Kaye said. “Our defensive coordinator had our kids really well prepared. We had a good feel for their plan and their personnel packages. So, we were just well prepared mentally and physically.”
Kaye is expecting the offense to improve.
“We have to be a little more consistent offensively,” Kaye said. “We had some pretty bad penalties. We have to shore some of that up. We have to shore up our extra-point kicks. Those were a little shaky. But we have to find ways to get it done.”
Spann also wanted to see more from the offense.
“We can improve on blocking, tackling and make more big plays,” Spann said. “There’s never too many big plays.”
Spann, who also plays safety, was annoyed that Red Bank Regional was able to score in the fourth quarter when Nigel Mitchell broke off an 85-yard touchdown sprint.
“Oh, we’re very mad [that the team didn’t get the shutout,]” Spann said. “That was our key goal in the meetings this morning: shutout, goose egg. But they’re a good team, so it was tough to do. [Mitchell] is pretty quick, and he broke one on us, but we managed to stop them throughout the game though.”
The Huskies will take on Monmouth Regional High School at home on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m.
