The Hamden High football team defeated Jonathan Law, 38-0, in in its home opener on Oct. 3, as the Lawmen continue to search for their first win under new coach Derrick Lewis.
“Any time you’re dealing with a program change like we did, it takes a while to break the bad habits,” Lewis said. “That’s one thing we’re focusing on. One of the intangibles I see, being a program builder, is are our guys going to fight to the last whistle, fight all the way through the fourth quarter.”
The Lawmen were led by senior tailback Max German, who had 45 yards rushing. Tim Edson struggled under center, completing 2-of-9 passes with three interceptions.
Maliek Williamson led the Green Dragons with 101 yards on the ground and four touchdowns. Spencer Thomas added 87 yards and a touchdown.
The Lawmen (0-4) got the ball first, and after short runs from German and Giovanni Marzullo and an incomplete pass punted to the Green Dragons.
Hamden (2-2) took over at its 45 and marched 55 yards in 10 plays, capped by a 6-yard Williamson run to give the Green Dragons a 7-0 lead.
Law responded with its best drive of the game.Marzullo returned the kickoff to the Hamden 42. A pair of five-yard Hamden pentlies around a German run moved the chains. Edson later found Marzullo for 19 yards on a slant over the middle for the first down to the Hamden 31.
Marzullo rushed for five yards down to the 26. Faced with a fourth-and-9 , Edson’s pass intended for Logan Danville was incomplete but Hamden was charged with pass interference, giving Law the ball at the Hamden 15 with a fresh set of downs.
Marzullo rushed for a yard before Edson dropped back to pass and threw towards the end zone, his pass was intercepted by Kishawn Delgado-McIntyre back line.
The Green Dragons responded with another 10 play drive, this one for 80 yards capped by a 35-yard Williamson touchdown run to make it 14-0.
After a pair of three and outs, Williamson scored his third touchdown when he intercepted Edson’s pass and took it 35 yards for the score to make it 21-0 at halftime.
“We have a strong freshman class, we have some strong young kids but it’s going to be a process,” Lewis said. “It’s going to be a struggle to win games, we knew that. We’re just trying to piece together and be the confidence builders that we can.”
Hamden got the opening kickoff of the second half and on the first play from scrimmage, Thomas rushed 76 yards for the touchdown to make it 28-0 Hamden.
Law got the ball back, and after an 11 yard German rush for a first down, Law was pushed back on a personal foul call. German then rushed twice for another first down. Marzullo for eight more, but on fourth-and-6, Law had to punt.
In the fourth quarter, Williamson scored his fourth touchdown after Stanley Arrington intercepted a pass at the Hamden 35.
“A couple mistakes here or there in the past couple games and we may be looking at a different outlook, but we’re going to keep chugging along and fix the mistakes that we can fix and continue to get better every day,” Lewis said.
On the following kickoff, Law fumbled the return and Hamden’s LeeAndre Benton recovered at the Law 27. The Law defense stood tall, but could not defend against the Hamden kicker, Angelo DiMonaco, who kicking a 26-yard field goal to make it a 38-0 game.
“Right now we’re working with what we have, keeping the kids together, keeping them positive and making everything as simple as possible so they can react instead of thinking on the field,” Lewis said.
“We’re getting to the meat of our schedule that we’re kind of hoping that athletically we match up better with some teams.”