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Sports

Turnovers Doom Titans in 31-14 Loss to Bruins

With Coach Randolph away from the team, T.C. Williams drops fourth straight game.

In order to win football games, you have to score points more than your opponent. In order to score, you have to have possession of the football.

In a 31-14 loss to Lake Braddock on Saturday afternoon, T.C. Williams (1-4) proved that it couldn’t do either very well.

Whether it was turning the ball over on downs, fumbles or junior quarterback Alec Grosser’s four interceptions, the Titans gave the ball away to the Bruins 10 times. The Bruins (3-2) capitalized on the mistakes by the Titans to score 28 of their 31 points.  

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It was the first game for Titans interim coach Avery Williams, who is filling in the rest of the season for Dennis Randolph while he attends to an undisclosed health matter.

Williams believes the Titans’ mistakes were their own fault.

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“I think overall it was the mental mistakes,” Williams said. “We have been working on our focus, and we just made too many mistakes mentally that put us in bad situations.”

The Titans appeared ready to take the lead early after recovering a Lake Braddock fumble deep in the Bruins' territory, but a fumble from Percy Haskins two plays later gave the ball right back.

A long fumble return set up the Bruins at the T.C. Williams 25-yard line. Senior quarterback Tyler Quigley quickly found his brother Tanner for a touchdown pass to give the Bruins a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Haskins made up for his mistake early in the second quarter when he took a short pass from Grosser and made several Bruin defenders miss before diving into the end zone to tie the score at 7-7. Grosser and Haskins connected on both Titans' touchdowns on the afternoon.

The rest of the game would be dominated by the Lake Braddock defense that, according to coach Jim Poythress, executed its game plan as well as it could.

“We wanted to be able to neutralize their run game and then force them to pass,” said Poythress. “Then try to make some plays and we were able to do that.”

Unable to run the ball with much success, Grosser attempted to look downfield to his pair of tall and fast wide receivers, juniors Landon Moss and Julius Cooper. After completing a couple of big passes downfield, the Lake Braddock defense adjusted, which enabled senior defensive back Greg Jones to take over the game singlehandedly in the second quarter.

Jones intercepted Grosser three times in the quarter. On two of his picks, Jones used his athleticism to jump over Cooper for the ball.

“That’s a great half,” said Poythress. “Greg is a great athlete. We had used him at strong safety early in the year and then moved him out to corner to get more height out there and he stepped up and played well today.”

Luck continued to be on the Bruins' side as a pass from Quigley toward the end zone was batted off a receiver’s hands and into the air. It landed in the hands of junior Austin Wolfe for a touchdown and a 17-7 Lake Braddock lead at the half.

Quigley, who added two more touchdown passes in the second half, is in his first season as the Bruins starting quarterback after playing behind standout quarterback Michael Nebrich last season.

“We ask the quarterback to come in a run the system and Tyler has stepped in and done everything we have asked him to do,” said Poythress. “The percentages are good and he is making plays.”

With Randolph out for the rest of the season and the Titans' losing streak now at four, Williams believes the Titans are going to get better as the season continues.

“The guys didn’t quit until the end,” Williams said. “It’s just like life, it has challenges and I’m willing to accept the challenges and that’s what I’m asking from the guys. In terms of accepting the challenge, they did that, but today we just made too many mistakes.”

T.C. Williams and Lake Braddock both return to action at home Thursday night. The Titans host W.T. Woodson at 5 p.m. The Bruins host South County at 7:30 p.m.

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