Moorestown Rides Shutdown Defense To Victory Over Kingsway

There’s a saying that defense can sometimes be one’s best offense.

That proved true on Friday night, as the Moorestown Quakers shut out the Kingsway Dragons by the score of 31-0 at Moorestown High School.

The game was Moorestown’s largest victory as far as points of the season thus far. Head coach Russ Horton was pleased with his team’s performance, especially on the defensive side of the football.  

“I thought they did a real nice job,” Horton said. “Our coverage was good; I thought we made their quarterback run a little bit. Our guys were swarming, both our defensive line played well, and our linebackers played real well.”

The Quakers pulled out to a seven-point lead early on, as quarterback Andrew Lisa completed a nine-yard touchdown reception to Alex Martinelli on Moorestown’s first possession of the game.

The Quakers would double their lead on their first possession of the second quarter, when Zac Frantz ran the ball in from 60 yards out into the Kingsway end zone.

Anthony Bonett would put the hammer down on Kingsway towards the end of the first half. He recorded a 40-yard touchdown run, as well as a 70-yard punt return touchdown run in the last four minutes of the second quarter, to put Moorestown ahead by the score of 28-0 at halftime.

Horton noted the home crowd tends to really pump up his Moorestown squad. Moorestown is now 2-1 on the season at home.

“They (the players) get up for Friday home games,” Horton said. “We don’t get too many of them; it seems like we’re away a lot. It was a good night for football, we’re hopefully working towards the playoffs, and I think all of that got the kids excited.”

Moorestown almost lost their shutout late in the fourth quarter. The Kingsway Dragons were at first and goal with just over a minute remaining on the clock, but the Moorestown defense refused to budge, as the Dragons weren’t able to find the end zone before the clock ran out after a 15-play drive.

Horton thought it was important that the defense got its shutout.

“It got the kids excited again,” Horton said. “In the second half we came out flat with us having that big lead. To hold the shutout at the end was good.”

After a two-game losing streak that put the Quakers at 2-2 after their first four games of the season, they’ve won their past two games, putting them at an overall record of 4-2 on the season.

“The two teams we’ve lost to are outstanding teams,” Horton said. “We’re beating the teams on the schedule that we should beat, and hopefully that builds towards the playoffs.”

Moorestown will visit Highland High School on Friday night.

1

2

3

4

Final

Kingsway (3-3)

0

0

0

0

0

Moorestown (4-2)

7

21

0

3

31

Scoring

M: Alex Martinelli 9 pass from Andrew Lisa (Alex Martinelli kick)

M: Zac Frantz 60 run (Alex Martinelli kick)

M: Anthony Bonett 40 pass from Andrew Lisa (Alex Martinelli kick)

M: Anthony Bonett 70 punt return (Alex Martinelli kick)

M: FG Alex Martinelli 30

Player Statistics

Moorestown

Andrew Lisa: 220 yards passing

Anthony Bonett: 151 yards rushing