In what will go down as one of the best performances in the history of Manassas Tigers football, Omar Williams carried his team to victory at St. Benedict’s on Friday night. After the 54-41 victory, the Tigers now find themselves at 5-1 and in the midst of a 5 game winning streak.
Just a week after celebrating their own homecoming with a victory, the Tigers went out east and wrecked the homecoming for St. Benedict’s. The Tigers will be looking to do that again this week when they travel to take on Frayser for their homecoming game.
The Tigers came into this game with key injuries on the offensive line, the defensive line, and in the backfield. To make matters worse, they found t themselves in a 28-13 hole with less than one minute to go in the first half. That’s when things changed in a hurry. With time running out in the first half, quarterback Will Redmond got the ball in the hands in one of the Tigers most dangerous players. Once Terrance Oliver caught the pass in St. Benedict’s territory, he knew exactly what do. After weaving his way thru traffic and outracing a couple of defender’s the final 10 yards, T. O. found himself in the end zone to cap off a 60 yard pass play to end the half.
Inspired by the final play of the 1st half and following some words of “encouragement” by Coach Courtney, the Tigers came out a different team in the second half.
The strategy was simple, have Will hand the ball off to Omar and let the big boys up front open some holes for Omar to run through. And run he did. Omar ended up with 363 yards on 27 carries resulting in 6 touchdowns. Yes, you read that correctly. 363 yards and 6 touchdowns. With that performance, if Omar is not player of the week in the city, than I want an investigation. Let’s give the well deserved credit to OC Brown, Julius Martin, Ratavious Laws, Eric Fulton, and Jimmel Grant. These guys worked hard to get Omar the room he needed. And once he got thru the line, there was no stopping Omar. The moves he made in the open field left the defenders grabbing at air and the fans in stands dancing in the aisles. The Tigers would go on to outscore St. Benedict 27-0 in the 3rd quarter to put the game away. All told, Manassas racked up over 520 yards of offense. This included two scoring passes from Will Redmond to Julius Parson.
The defense came out in the second half having made some adjustments and looked like a different bunch of guys. Chavis Daniels, inserted at defensive tackle to start the second half, combined with Joaquin Collins, Deon Amos, and Julius Parson to form a very tough defensive line. This made it easier for the rest of his defensive unit to run around and make plays. As a result, Dexter Alexander did what he seems to be doing each week. Dex picked off a St. Benedict pass to set up a 2nd half score. In addition, true freshman James Fisher had his first career interception.
This might be one of those games that the Tigers look back on as a pivotal point to their season. Down by two touchdowns just before half and on the road, they could have thrown in the towel. But if we have learned anything about this team after six weeks is that they never give up.
The Tigers next test will be this Thursday night, October 8. Manassas will travel to Greenhill Stadium to take on Frayser at 7:00. Come on out and support the Tigers as they continue their march towards the postseason.