Boswell’s big day helps Hamilton avoid upset
HAMILTON >> West Windsor continued to show it’s a much improved football team, but Hamilton still has junior running back Kevin Boswell.
This pretty sums up Hamilton’s 28-21 victory over West Windsor Saturday afternoon in a game with a staggering 28 penalties and all kinds of other mistakes.
By the time his highlight-reel day was finished, Boswell had run for three touchdowns and 240 yards on 21 carries. All of this was needed because West Windsor got three touchdowns itself from speedster Makhi Thompson, including one on a spectacular 81-yard kickoff return in which he somehow emerged from a pile of Hornet would-be tacklers.
“It was a battle; they are a tough team,” said Boswell. “It was hard to run inside on them, but I was able to get outside. That’s where I live.”
It looked like Hamilton was in great shape when it raced out to a 13-0 first-quarter lead on TD runs of 62 and 6 yards by Boswell, but West Windsor then suddenly came to life and struck on a 28yard TD pass from sophomore quarterback Shane Johnson to classmate Thompson.
In hindsight, where West Windsor probably lost this game was in a scoreless second quarter when it had one TD bomb for a touchdown called back for holding.
It also had a key receiver ejected from the game for a second personal foul. This not only took away a big weapon for South, but also came into play when a replacement receiver dropped a long pass that probably would have gone for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Of all the mistakes in the game, the biggest occurred early in the third quarter when a snap sailed over the West Windsor punter’s head and Hamilton took over at the 1 yard line. Quarterback Mike Nielsen then scored on a sneak and the gift touchdown proved to the difference in the end.
No matter how many things went wrong, resilient West Windsor refused to go away and sure enough it answered Hamilton’s third touchdown with the scintillating kickoff return by Thompson. Perhaps Hamilton knew what it was doing because prior to the kickoff return, it twice kicked the ball out of bounds on the opposite side of the field from Thompson.
It was here where Boswell struck again. And much like his first TD on the 62-yard run, he once again bounced outside and outraced everyone for a 54-yard touchdown run to stake his team to a 28-14 lead.
Still not finished, West Windsor stayed alive in the fourth quarter on a 65-yard pass to Thompson from Johnson, who was 15-for-26 for 221 yards. The sophomore quarterback was able to put together these stats despite a ferocious pass rush that included a sack by Joseph Muni, the son of famous Trenton athlete Joe Muni.
The third TD by Thompson closed the gap to 28-21, but came with just 2:02 remaining. Hamilton was able to run out the clock from there to give new coach Mike Papero his first victory.
“It was a sloppy performance by our team, but next week it will be better,” said Boswell.
West Windsor (0-2) 7 0 7 7 — 21 Hamilton (1-1) 130150—28
H-Boswell 62 run (Gonzalez kick) H-Boswell 6 run (Gonzalez kick) WW-Thompson 28 pass from Johnson (Potenza kick)
H-Nielsen 1 run (Gonzalez kick) WW-Thompson 81 kickoff return (Potenza kick) H-Boswell 54 run (Edwards run) WW-Thompson 64 pass from Johnson (Potenza kick)