Cooper, Tigers rout Juanita Sanchez
EAST PROVIDENCE — The Tolman football team recorded its third shutout of season with a 48-0 win over Juanita Sanchez-Providence Country Day co-op Saturday at PCD.
The Tigers played well in all three phases, scoring seven touchdowns on offense and recording two turnovers and a fourth-down stop on defense.
“This was the message before the game, ‘We’ve got a lot of stuff we got to clean up. Lining up right, completing our passes, executing the plays.’ That’s what the message was all week long,” said Tolman coach Jason DeLawrence.
Tolman (5-2, 3-2 Division III) on the score board eight minutes into the game when junior quarterback Jordan Cooper found Alex Medeiros along the sideline who raced 20 yards in the right corner of the end zone.
A few plays later, Medeiros snagged an interception on defense and returned it 30 yards. It was initially ruled a touchdown, but officials later determined Medeiros was tackled just shy of the goal line. It wouldn’t matter as Quite Today punched it in a few plays later, giving the Tigers a 14-0 lead. Today also scored a touchdown during the second half.
“We run a lot of power at people. Combined with the passing game, it makes it a little difficult to defend,” DeLawrence said.
Midway through the second quarter, Cooper connected with senior receiver Isai Prince over the middle for a 50-yard touchdown strike.
On the ensuing possession, Tolman forced a fumble, giving Cooper the ball near midfield. A few plays later, Cooper threw an interception. The Cavaliers began to put together a solid drive offensively, but they stalled in the red zone and turned the ball over on downs.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first half, senior receivers Daniel Akinsheye and Prince each dropped potential touchdown passes on consecutive plays.
“That’s not like Danny to drop a ball. I kind of clowned him a little bit on the sidelines. But, I knew when we go back to him, he’ll catch the ball and he’ll make plays. He’ll bounce back,” said coach DeLawrence.
With six seconds remaining, Cooper threw a pass towards the end zone and Akinsheye snagged it out of the air in double coverage with no time remaining for the Tigers fifth touchdown of the afternoon. Tolman connected on the two-point conversion and went into halftime with a 36-0 advantage.
“It [stinks] dropping the ball,” said Akinsheye. “It was amazing to bounce back before halftime.”
Junior running back Jose Baez scored the final touchdown, putting the Tigers up 48-0 with less than four minutes remaining.
“I did a committee of running backs today with my squad guys and my running backs and they ran hard,” said coach DeLawrence.
Cooper was solid throwing the ball, finishing with four touchdowns, including two to running back Alexander Medeiros.
“He’s done a good job. His reads have been good, he’s watching a lot of film and learning what he has to do,” said Medeiros.
DeLawrence said it was very important for the team to continue to play with a high level of intensity during the second half.
“Our defense wanted to show a shutout. They wanted to preserve it and it makes them feel good, so it was important to us,” he said.
The Tigers turn their attention to North Providence next week, hoping to build off of their blowout win.
“It’s huge,” said DeLawrence. “We’ve got a tough game next week against them and I really want to keep building ourselves so when we hit the playoffs, we’re just ready to go.”