Even after blowout wins, football teams always find areas of improvement to focus on for the following game. A pair of dropped would-be interceptions last week in Union’s 34-0 win over Elizabeth stuck with Desmond Igbinosun, as he and his coach estimated both chances would have also gone for touchdowns had Igbinosun completed the catch.
“He dropped two last week…and he doesn’t do that, he’s not that kind of player,” Union coach Lou Grasso, Jr. said. “So his teammates are getting on him, which is nice when the young guys get a chance to get on him.”
After putting up with the lighthearted film-room razzing by his teammates all week, in the third quarter against Watchung Hills on Friday, protecting an 18-3 lead, Igbinosun got another chance. He anticipated the throw. He jumped the route. He dropped another sure pick-six.
“I just feel like I’ll be trying to score before I catch the ball,” said Igbinosun, who took a couple of steps before juggling the ball out of bounds. “But I ran to the sideline and I told my coaches like, ‘Yo, God’s trying to tell me something. There’s no way I drop three pick-sixes in two weeks.’
“Thank God I got the one when we needed it the most.”
Igbinosun scored his eagerly awaited interception-return in the fourth quarter to add to his earlier pair of rushing touchdowns as Union (4-2) defeated Watchung Hills 30-10 on Friday in Warren.
After Watchung Hills (3-2) averted what could have been a back-breaking blow when Igbinosun dropped quarterback Chad Martini’s pass in the third quarter, it continued onward and completed an 80-yard touchdown drive when Martini snuck into the end zone from two yards away. That cut Union’s lead to 18-10.
“You make that play a thousand times in practice to set you up to make it in the game,” Igbinosun said. “It’s like I let my brothers down because (Watchung Hills) went to go score on that.”
Suddenly, Watchung Hills had gathered some momentum. The Warriors had trailed the Farmers 18-3 at the half, but it sat in a familiar spot; two weeks earlier, Watchung Hills had trailed by two scores at the break against Phillipsburg, who was then ranked ninth in the NJ.com Top 20, and had pulled off a 21-20 comeback.
Watchung Hills tested its luck and tried an onside kick after Martini’s score but was unsuccessful. The Farmers and Warriors traded empty possessions, and a punt return touchdown by Union senior Elijah White was nullified by a personal foul. At the end of a herky-jerky possession with two penalties called on Union and one on Watchung Hills, Igbinosun lined up in the wildcat formation and ran for a 56-yard touchdown to make it 24-10.
Igbinosun, a wide receiver most of the time on offense, scored a 3-yard touchdown running from the wildcat in the second quarter as well.
“I learned a long time ago from my dad, when I coached with my dad, and from other great coaches I coached with, (to) give your best players the ball, let them do their thing,” Grasso said. “He’s a special, special player, and (we’ve) gotta give him the ball as many chances as we can.”
Igbinosun showed his ability to take the ball away from his opponents as well in the final four minutes of the game. The Rutgers commit jumped a wide receiver screen and this time held onto the ball, running 71 yards for the pick-six he craved. That put the finishing touches on a 30-10 victory.
“The big time moments, I feel like God made me for those moments because you saw Watchung Hills start to get a little bit of hope, and they (were) tackling everybody in the backfield,” Igbinosun said. “And for me to silence them like that, it was big.”
Running back Diante Wilson picked up 127 yards on the ground in the first half for the Farmers, at one point ripping off gains of 46, 33 and 27 yards in a span of three touches. The 46-yarder went for a touchdown to make it 12-0 Union in the first quarter. Quarterback Shawn Smith had snuck in for a 1-yard touchdown on the previous drive.
On the other side of the ball, the Union defense forced 22 incompletions out of 38 Watchung Hills pass attempts while limiting the Warriors to 116 total rushing yards.
“They’re a good football team, they were good last year, they were good the year before,” Watchung Hills coach Rich Seubert said. “We have to play a perfect game to beat a team like Union, and we’re not there yet. And that’s what we’re striving to become. Our kids work hard, and they put the time and effort in. Today, I give credit to Coach Lou and his team, they had some good players on that side.”
But like they did after last week’s win against Elizabeth, the Farmers once again know what they need to work to improve. Union would like to clean up its extra-point unit this week, Grasso said. The Farmers were held to six points on all five of their touchdowns; their point-after struggles included a bobbled snap, a pair of unsuccessful two-point attempts, one blocked kick and one kick that missed.
“It’s infuriating,” Grasso said. “Luckily we’re scoring enough points where it doesn’t really make that big a difference, but that could have hurt us today.”
Union’s next scheduled opponent is Hunterdon Central, a road game. Watchung Hills is scheduled to travel to North Hunterdon.
