ORANGE — The Monument Mountain defense came up with turnovers early and often against Mahar on Friday.
The Spartans opened the scoring by recovering a fumble in the end zone and went on to force and recover two more fumbles before the first quarter came to a close to build an early 14-0 lead.
The Monument defense stood tall throughout the remainder of the game, leading to a 34-6 victory at the Woodward Complex.
“It’s always fun to start the season with a win,” Spartans coach Chris Tucci said. “It’s always fun to see your offense and defense clicking. We wanted to see players pop out tonight and we had quite a few players who had great games. I’m really proud of them.”
For Mahar coach Percy Eady, it was little mistakes that plagued the Sens throughout their season opener.
With a young team, he hopes to see them learn and grow from Friday’s contest.
“We have to clean up all the little things,” Eady said. “We take an inside run outside, things like that. We have to finish blocks. We have the athletes and I believe they’re in the right spot. At the end of the day, it’s about momentum.”
Monument (1-0) drove down to the Mahar 1 on the opening drive of the game, but the Senator defense came up with a stop on the goal line to get the ball back.
Mahar fumbled the snap on its ensuing possession, and the ball was recovered by Monument’s Cameron Knopf in the end zone, giving Monument an early 6-0 lead.
The Spartans forced a fumble on the second play of the ensuing Mahar drive and on the first play, Monument’s Brennan Peyre scampered in from 28 yards out. Quarterback Dominic Calautti kept it himself for the two-point try to make it a 14-0 contest with 7:51 to go in the first.
Monument added to its lead with 5:44 left in the second quarter. The Spartans used the ground game to march into the red zone, where Kamren Boino took it in from 2 yards out to give Monument a 20-0 lead, a score that held to the half.
The Spartans forced a fumble on the second play of the third quarter and nine plays later, Boino plowed in from the 2 for his second score of the game. Griffin Touponce added the two-point try to make it a 28-0 contest with 6:07 to go in the third.
Calautti connected with Touponce — who had two interceptions on defense — for a 67-yard score early in the fourth quarter, leading to running time the remainder of the game.
Mahar’s best drive of the game came in the third quarter, as Freeland Ringer connected with Carter Hardy for a 60-yard gain to set the Senators up at the Monument Mountain 4. The Monument defense stood tall and forced a stop on fourth down to keep Mahar off the scoreboard.
Mahar ended the shutout on the final play of the game, as freshman Lee Cruz Jr. hauled in a fade route in the end zone from Ringer.
Tucci noted he was proud of the way his team handled tough situations, always responding in a positive manner.
“The first game of the season you want to see how your team reacts to adversity,” Tucci said. “What happens when there’s a turnover? What I’m most proud of is how quickly they rallied any time there was a mistake. We had a brief moment when it was penalty after penalty but they came to the side, locked in and took care of business.”
Eady said turnovers proved to be too much to overcome, though there is plenty to improve as the season moves on.
“Our first three offensive plays were turnovers,” Eady said. “That’s tough to overcome. When you put up two more interceptions and are playing the turnover game, it’s really hard to win games. I think we have the athletes and we had some explosives. The young guys showed up for us.”