Mamaroneck Holds Fox Lane Scoreless For Their First Victory

Sometimes teams have a tendency to shall we say, “pack it in”after starting a season on a losing trend—especially in football where you have a shorter schedule than other sports—but Mamaroneck’s varsity football team wanted nothing to do with that notion.

They came into Friday night’s home game against Fox Lane 0-2, after two really close losses, and they looked determined, hungry, and ready to get that zero out of the win column, which in fact, they did.

Defensively, Mamaroneck’s lineman got constant pressure on Fox Lane quarterback T.J. Hallock, sacking him multiple times, pressuring him a bunch, and the defensive unit as a whole did a tremendous job of containing Fox Lane’s run attack. They kept Fox Lane out of the red zone the entire game and allowed Mamaroneck's offense to get into a nice groove, as Mamaroneck shut out Fox Lane 21-0 for their first victory of the 2011 season.

“The guys really came into practice all week working harder each day and they just wouldn’t let down even though we felt like we were right there in both of the first two games and let the last one slip away,” Mamaroneck head coach Anthony Vitti said. “We preached all week about guys having the will to win and the desire to keep fighting and they showed it out there tonight. Defensively we were stout all game, our lines on both sides of the ball were strong, and our skill position guys were patient offensively and picked their spots.”

One of Mamaroneck’s skill position players who had a solid performance was senior quarterback Parker Thelander. Thelander contributed on all three Mamaroneck scores as he threw two touchdown passes and also ran for one. Thelander spread the ball around extremely well hitting five different Mamaroneck receivers as he connected on 13 of 22 passes for 124 yards (one interception).

“I’m so proud for our guys today, we’ve been so close but today we finally finished,” Thelander said. “I have to give my teammates and coaching staff the credit; it wasn’t just me out there. Our linemen were dominant and everybody made plays for us.”

As for Fox Lane, they couldn’t get much accomplished offensively and their defense started to wear down late in the third and fourth quarter. Hallock went 11 for 21, 111 yards and an interception, mostly targeting Spencer Chernus, who had five catches for 72 yards.

Fox Lane defensive lineman Alec Brown was involved in a scary scene as he was carted off the field just before the start of the fourth quarter. He experienced some pain in his back, according to Fox Lane head coach Steve Quinn, which seemed to stem from a blow to the head/neck area as Thelander's quarterback sneak try on second down from the Fox Lane's 1-yardline was stopped. Play was halted for approximately 20 minutes, then resumed.

“We left a lot of plays out on the field tonight and we just didn’t execute,” Quinn said.