Downers South edges out rival North

Updated: September 23, 2011 11:47PM

No team has been able to shut down Downers South running back Josh Williams this year.

Downers North did it Friday night, but only for a half.

The visiting Trojans held Williams to just 19 yards rushing on seven carries before the break, but still trailed 10-0. Williams then exploded in the second half, scoring on runs of 10 and 28 yards and finishing with 29 carries for 221 yards in the Mustangs’ 24-14 victory.

“Downers North is a really good team at keeping the ball in their offense’s hands and running time off the clock and we didn’t do a good job of capitalizing when we did have the ball,” Williams said. “So coming out in the second half we knew we had to step it up and help our defense out by keeping them off the field.”

Downers South (5-0) did that by feeding the ball to Williams, who gained 134 yards in the third quarter alone running behind linemen Shane Companey, Kevin Nam, Tim Lieb, Mark Muench, Sean Eslit and Scott Daly.

A 28-yard touchdown run by Williams gave the Mustangs a 24-0 lead with 11:36 left in the fourth quarter. The Trojans (1-4) got on the board with a one-yard touchdown run by Anthony Rada (20 carries, 127 yards) and finished the scoring on a two-yard run by Robert Sheppard with 21 seconds remaining.

South quarterback A.J. Simoncelli was the player who flashed great running skills in the first quarter, scoring on a 67-yard misdirection play – the longest touchdown of his life – to give South an early 7-0 lead.

“That wasn’t me at all,” Simoncelli said. “That was Josh’s fake. They flew toward his side, [fullback] DeMarco Johnson made a great block outside and I didn’t look back after that.”

The Mustangs, who received a 32-yard field goal from Anthony Farinella just before halftime, didn’t look back in the second half as the offensive line overcame North’s fierce resistance.

“[The Trojans] played great,” Simoncelli said. “We had a great game plan, of course. Coach [John] Belskis prepares very well, puts us in the best position to win, but sometimes we just don’t have it, we shoot ourselves in the foot a couple times like we did, but in the second half we came out and pretty much pounded the ball down their throats and they couldn’t stop our offensive line.”

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