Momouth Shakes Off Sluggish Start, Rolls Over Hampton 56-28

Photos courtesy of Monmouth University: #24 Pete Guerriero, #9 Reggie White Jr., #4 Devell Jones, #11 Kenji Bahar, #17 Jake Powell and #95 Adan Kakar

WEST LONG BRANCH – A year ago in their first ever meeting, future Big South member Hampton University took an early 13-0 lead on the Hawks.

In Monmouth’s home opener Saturday at Kessler Stadium in West Long Branch, Hampton again scored two quick touchdowns for an unsettling 14-0 lead, but that’s where the similarities between the two games ended.

Last year, Hampton scored a touchdown with 23 seconds left in the game to force overtime before Eric Zokouri scored on a 25-yard rushing touchdown to preserve the win for the Hawks.

Saturday’s game initially looked as if it might have some drastic implications on the Hawks season. But in the blink of an eye, the Hawks not only erased Hamptons two-touchdown lead they scored TD’s on six of their next seven possessions producing 42 unanswered points to take a 42-14 lead late in the third quarter before finishing off the Pirates 56-28.

Monmouth has now won six games in a row at the new Kessler Stadium after going 5-0 there last season.

“It wasn’t exactly the way we wanted to start the game today,” Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan said. “We had talked all week and then the pre-game meeting about starting fast and I think we started out anything but fast today. We go down two scores early, but I will say the way we responded to it is the way you want your team to respond. I thought we handled that adversity very well, came back and scored 42 consecutive points and really had the game in control. We just needed to settle down and do out job.”

With 10 offensive starters back from last year’s team that led the Big South in scoring offense (32.8 pts/game) and were third in total offense after averaging almost 400 yards a game big things are expected out of this unit this season and they didn’t disappoint on Saturday.

“I thought you saw some tremendous explosiveness on the part of our offense with Pete (Guerriero) running the ball, with what Kenji (Bahar) was able to do throwing the ball to a number of different receivers – Vinny (Grasso), Reggie White and Jake Powell among others. I just thought it was a very balanced attack.”

The Hawks racked up 556 yards of total offense including 326 yards passing and 230 yard rushing. Guerriero had a career-high 209 rushing yards - fifth most single-game yardage in Monmouth history – and became Monmouth’s first 200-yard rusher since 2009. Bahar also recorded a career-high with 326 yards passing while completing 15-of-26 passes and three touchdowns.

"I think with all our returners and our connection that we have just together, once we get rolling and start clicking I don't think there's a defense that will be able to stop us," Guerriero said. "Just by the way we play and the time we have on the offensive side of the ball we're going to be very hard to stop."

Reggie White Jr. continued his assault on the Monmouth record books with five receptions for a game-high 145 yards and senior tight end Jake Powell recorded his first two-touchdown game of his career with five receptions for 66 yards.

White Jr. has 2,462 career receiving yards, which ranks him third all-time in Monmouth history – 153 yards shy of Neil Sterling’s record of 2,615 and his 191 career receptions leave him 21 receptions short of Sterling’s 212.

Senior running back Devell Jones added two more rushing touchdowns to his resume, increasing his career total to 13 – ninth all-time in Monmouth history. When the Hawks need tough yardage down at the goal line the 6-foot-0, 235-pound Jones produces.

Former Donovan Catholic star, Vinny Grasso, had a highlight reel 25-yard catch-and-run touchdown juking a number of would-be tacklers using his jet-like acceleration to get into the end zone.

Monmouth’s veteran offensive line opened gaping holes for the Hawks running backs all day and provided Bahar the protection he needed to go over the 300-yard mark in passing yardage.

“My O-Line and tight ends did a wonderful job blocking inside the box,” said Guerriero giving credit to his linemates. “I can’t thank them enough. All I saw on my touchdown run (67 yards) was green thanks to them.”

After allowing two touchdowns and 175-yards of total offense in the first quarter, the defense, which is expected to be a much improved unit this season, forced Hampton to punt on six of their next seven possessions. The Pirates turned the ball over on downs on the other and gained just 68 yards of total offense in those seven possessions. They defense didn’t surrender another touchdown until late in the third quarter with the game already out of reach 42-14.

“I think after the first two series the defense settled down and did a good job,” Callahan said. “We were able to get off the field and get the ball back to our offense. They got it done. I thought the defensive line did job shutting down the run.”

Monmouth held Hampton to 90 yards rushing on 29 attempts (3.1 yards/attempt).

Sophomore strong-side safety Anthony Budd led the defense with eight tackles (3 solo, 5 ast) and senior safeties Marcus Leslie and Kyle Gregory each added seven total tackles. Senior cornerback and captain Tymere Berry recorded his first interception of the season and had four tackles.

Junior defensive tackle Adam Kakar registered his first sack of the season and sophomore defensive tackle Kurt Aumer and senior defensive tackle Gerron Pendarvis combined for a sack. Pendarvis and Aumer each added four tackles along with their sack.

Sophomore linebacker DeJaun Cooper had six tackles, including three solo, on the day while linebackers Da’Quan Grimes and Trey Nelson each finished with four tackles, including two solo tackles apeice.

Former Middletown South quarterback/kicker Matt Mosquera was a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points.

“It was far from a perfect game, we’d like to see us finish a little better,” Callahan said. “We have to make sure we’re really paying attention to the details and the finer points of things because in a closer game those things will hurt us. But we’re extremely happy and excited about the win. It’s our six straight here at Kessler Stadium and it’s our first win of 2018, but there’s obviously an awful lot that occurred out there today that we can build upon.”

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