JK captures seventh straight

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on October 30, 2005 2:12 AM

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WARSAW -- Sophomore Shawn Jones passed for a career-high three touchdowns and senior Ronnie Williams ran for 162 yards and another score to lead James Kenan to its eighth straight victory with a 44-0 whitewashing of Union.

The victory Friday night at Bill Taylor Field sends the Tigers into the Class 1-A Super Six Conference championship game this Friday at home against unbeaten, state-ranked Wallace-Rose Hill. It's the third straight year the two schools have met for the title, with the Bulldogs winning the first two.

James Kenan is 8-2 and 4-0 in the conference. Union is 6-3, 2-2.

Kenan's Williams outrushed the Spartans' Alfred Williams -- fourth-leading rusher in the state -- who gained 141 yards. Ronnie Williams had two touchdowns called back on penalties, including an 80-yarder on the Tigers' second play. Alfred Williams had a 28-yard scoring run scratched by a penalty on the game's opening drive.

Jones, a left-hander, hit 8-of-10 passes for 128 yards with no interceptions. His touchdown tosses went 22 yards to D.J. Moore, 19 to Jason Kennion and 31 to Shawn Wilson. It was the first TD of the season for Moore and Wilson.

The Tigers held off three Union charges in the first half. On the first two, defensive end Alonzo Washington made primary stops on fourth-down runs by Williams at the Kenan 25- and five-yard lines.

On the third, Union reached Kenan's one-yard line, but the home team's line threw Williams back on fourth down with 17 seconds left in the first half.

The first quarter was scoreless, but late in the period the Tigers started a 95-yard, 17-play drive in which they overcame 25 yards in penalties. Included in the march was a 27-yard pass off a fake punt by freshman Alex Nickerson to D.J. Moore to the Union 26-yard line.

Jones passed to Moore for the game's first score, a 22-yarder on which Moore was 15 yards from any defender in the left side of the end zone.

The Tigers moved in quickly after recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at Union's 26-yard line. Sophomore Stedman Mathis scored on an eight-yard run.

A pair of two-point conversions had JK up 16-0 at halftime. It was 22-0 after three periods on Marcus Sloan's 41-yard run, but with Union going three-and-punt on its first four possessions of the second half, the rout was soon on.

Note: Coach Kevin Motsinger is 23-12 in his third year at James Kenan, a record for victories by a Tiger football coach in his first three seasons. Kim Brown was 21-14 from 1996-98 and Stan Bowles was 21-8-1 from 1971-72.