Mustangs Hammer TA

BRIDGEWATER — Coming off consecutive wins after starting the season with four straight losses, Turner Ashby High School had plenty of momentum going into Friday night’s non-district game. The Knights, however, met a frustrated and talented Monticello team trending in the other direction, having lost two in a row after a 5-0 start.

The Mustangs received the added bonus of getting back dangerous, dual-threat quarterback Jhalil Mosley after suspension last week, and used a huge third quarter to beat TA 52-21.

Junior running back T.J. Tillery ran for 129 yards and three touchdowns, and Monticello (6-2) outscored TA (2-5) 42-8 in the second and third quarters.

Mosley, who has committed to James Madison, was nearly perfect, completing 10 of 12 passes for 139 yards. He accounted for three touchdowns in the air and one on the ground, as the Mustangs racked up 457 yards of total offense.

The Knights’ defense had perhaps its best stand of the night on Monticello’s opening possession. After speedy kick-returner Denzel Terry returned the opening kickoff 73 yards, TA’s defense held MHS to Josh Malm’s 30-yard field-goal. On Monticello’s next possession, Mosley scored on a 1-yard keeper to cap a nine play, 67-yard drive that ate up over four minutes.

Shane Brown got Turner Ashby (2-5) on the board late in the first quarter with a 23-yard scoring run.

The junior scored twice more, once on a 44-yard reception from quarterback Evan Hanifee on the final play of the first half, and capped the scoring in the game with a 44-yard run late in the fourth. By then, however, the outcome was long decided.

Brown acknowledged the need to have a short memory.

“We just have to move forward,” he said. “That game didn’t mean anything. We just need to win district games. Have to keep practicing hard, and we’ve been doing that.”

Tillery scored from five yards out on the Mustangs’ first possession of the third quarter and added a 17-yard run on their next possession. Mosley connected with receiver Alex McNair on a 20-yard scoring pass to cap a third quarter in which Monticello outscored TA 22-0.

“The big thing tonight is we just tackled poorly,” TA coach Charlie Newman said. “I didn’t see a ton of mistakes otherwise, but that’s a very talented football team over there.”

McNair also scored on a 4-yard pass from Mosley in the second quarter, which preceded Mosley connecting with Seth Miles from 23 yards out. McNair finished with 55 yards on four catches.

“It’s a non-district game, and we didn’t perform as well as we would have liked to perform, but we had a great week of practice,” Newman said. “That quarterback is the real deal, and they were ignited by his return, and that’s a great program. We got Lee coming in next week, and that’s a big game for us.”

Newman, who injured his right leg last week against Spotswood and coached mostly from the press box Friday, hopes to be back on the sideline again soon.

“The leg’s definitely had better days. It’s sore and the cold didn’t help much,” he said.