Marcus Williams didn’t score the go-ahead touchdown for Mater East on Friday night. But as he had all game, the senior running back did most of the heavy lifting.
Williams rushed for 287 yards and a touchdown on 39 carries, including six rushes for 53 yards on the go-ahead drive, as the Knights defeated visiting Sloan Canyon 20-14 for the Class 4A Southern Region football championship.
Mater East (9-3) will play Galena in the Class 4A state championship game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21 at McQueen High in Reno.
“I mean, it feels wonderful,” Williams said. “I’ve been bounced my last two years, so to finally be a deciding factor on a state championship team feels great.”
With the score tied at 14, Williams helped lead the Knights on a 13-play, 79-yard scoring drive. He had a key 27-yard run on the drive, and his 7-yard rush coupled with a personal foul on Sloan Canyon moved the ball to the 1-yard line. Junior Rayshawn Brown scored on a 1-yard plunge with 6:02 to play to give Mater East the 20-14 lead.
“Marcus is an amazing player, an amazing person,” Mater East coach Tim Hough said. “Every time we need to call the number, he’s going to answer.”
Williams definitely answered the call on Friday, consistently picking up yardage with a heavy workload.
“I’m a little tired, but you know, we had to keep going,” Williams said. “I had to keep doing it. My team needed me to do it, so that’s what I did. Gotta step up.”
Mater East drove inside the Sloan Canyon 10 on the game’s first drive, but fumbled at the 1-yard line. Williams made sure the next drive was successful.
He took a handoff on the first play of that next possession, bounced off a tackler 5 yards in the backfield and then raced down the right hash for a 72-yard TD to make it 6-0 with 36 seconds left to go in the first quarter.
“I was tired, but it felt great just to score,” Williams said. “Last game, I didn’t score against them. It felt great to score against them this game.”
The Knights extended the lead to 14-0 on a 21-yard TD pass from James Monaghan to Justin McCullah with 6:31 to go in the first half.
Mater East outgained the Pirates (8-3) 497-173, but the Knights were often their own worst enemy. In addition to the costly turnover on the first drive, Mater East was flagged 18 times for 200 yards.
“We’re going to get better,” Hough said. “I can say we’re going to get better at penalties.”
Sloan Canyon got on the board with a 6-yard TD pass from Cade Hoshino to Brandon Quaglio that made it 14-6 with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
The Pirates tied the score on a Hoshino’s 1-yard QB sneak with 10:27 to play.
After the Knights retook the lead, Sloan Canyon drove to the Mater East 20, but Hoshino fumbled on a third-down run, and Elijah Newcomb recovered to help seal the win.
Williams gained 36 yards on three carries on the game’s final drive. He dragged several tacklers the final 10 yards on his final rush of the game. The Knights were then able to kneel three times to secure the win.
Monaghan completed 17 of 25 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown, and McCullah had six catches for 96 yards for the Knights.
Kaiden Hunn had five catches for 98 yards to pace the Pirates.
