By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
MILLVILLE — Have you ever been to one of those nice houses or office buildings with the vaulted ceilings, and when you get to the landing at the top of the stairs and look down, it seems like it’s about a 30-foot drop to the first floor?
That might have been similar to the feeling that Millville senior wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks had late in the third quarter of Friday night’s 40-7 win over Mainland — the team that ousted the Thunderbolts from the state playoffs a year ago as the Mustangs went 14-0 and won a state championship.
Three-hundred-plus days later was billed as “The Get-Back” and boy did the Thunderbolts get back at the Stangs. Brooks scored in just about every way imaginable — racking up four touchdowns — and he even had two scores called back because of penalties. His most acrobatic score came late in the third quarter when he hauled in an 18-yard pass from Robbie O’Connor by outleaping a Mainland defender, nearly sitting on his shoulders when he caught the ball.
It was a long fall back to the turf.
Brooks spends most Friday nights dropping defenders where they stand with insane juke moves, but he doesn’t drop touchdown passes.
“When I looked down, I was pretty high in the air. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t know I could do that. I was pretty high up there,” said Brooks, a senior and University of Alabama commit. “But tonight made me come out of my shell. We had a chip on our shoulder from last year and that’s what boosted everybody on the team — offense, defense, special teams — everybody.
“What fired me up (at halftime) was the coaches. Two of my touchdowns (in the first half) got called back, so, I had to come out and get them back.”
That score gave Millville, which trailed 7-6 at halftime, a 20-7 lead. The game was never really in doubt after the first series of the second half, however, when Brooks stripped a Mainland ball carrier and raced down the left sideline for his second TD of the game, one that gave the Bolts — the No. 1 team in the South Jersey Glory Days/South Jersey Football Frenzy Show Best 11 rankings — the lead for good at 13-7.
Millville jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the opening drive of the game as Brooks capped off an 82-yard, nearly four-minute drive by racing around the left side on a jet sweep running play, scoring without being touched. Mainland responded on its first drive as junior quarterback John Franchini converted a big fourth-down play deep in Millville territory to set up his 8-yard touchdown pass to Colt Russo. Nate Kashey’s extra point gave the Mustangs a 7-6 lead that they would eventually take into halftime, as Brooks had an 85-yard punt return touchdown and a 30-yard receiving touchdown called back because of holding penalties.
“Listen, like I tell everybody, he’s an amazing player, but we have a lot of other guys who make plays. There’s only so much you can do with Brooks sometimes because he draws so much attention,” said Millville coach Humberto Ayala. “To be able to run the ball like the way we did tonight, and even in the other games, helps to balance us out. Our O-line is doing a heckuva job. Our new line coach really has those guys going in the right direction, and I think we’re only going to get better on that front end.
“We had two touchdowns taken off the board, but we also missed some things,” the coach continued. “We have some younger players, and this was a big game. With our younger players, the moment was a little much (early on) but they kept their poise. When we went into the locker room (at halftime) there was no need for a holler or a rant. We know who we are as a football team, we know who we are as a football program. Millville football fights through adversity, and that’s what we did. We came out in the second half, did what we were supposed to do, and the score was exactly what we expected it to be.”
Aidan Dawkins added a pair of rushing touchdowns, including a 63-yarder, in the fourth quarter to sandwich a 60-yard touchdown reception by Brooks on a play where he caught the ball about two yards from the line of scrimmage on a slant in.
“He’s an amazing player, very electric. We’re lucky to have him. He’s been doing this since youth league, but it’s crazy to see him transform. He gets better every week. People look at it and say, ‘he’s such a high caliber player, how can he get better every year?’ But he does. He has a great work ethic. He’s shifty and fast, and that’s why Alabama wants him,” said senior center Marcus Offer. “This was circled on our calendar since that game last year. The entire offseason we’ve been working, grinding, and this is our time. We put it on them. It was a little shaky in the first half, but in the second half we cleaned up some things, made some changes and got to work.”
Here’s a quick look at all the ways Brooks scored against Mainland, the No. 4 ranked team in the South Jersey Glory Days/South Jersey Football Frenzy Show Best 11, the defending state champion and a team that had won 16 straight games:
TD 1: Goes 10 yards around the left end on a running play, untouched.
TD 2: Fakes out about five Mainland defenders on an 85-yard punt return (called back for a penalty).
TD 3: Makes an incredible diving catch in the end zone on a 30-yard strike over the middle from QB Robbie O’Connor (called back for a penalty).
TD 4: Strips a Mainland runner of the ball on the Stangs’ first possession of the second half, races 55 yards down the left sideline to put Millville ahead, 13-7.
TD 5: Late in the third quarter, outleaps a Mainland defender in the right corner of the end zone, jumping nearly over the defender, before crashing back to the turf with a touchdown catch that gave Millville a 20-7 lead.
TD 6: Takes a 2-yard slant in pass from O’Connor and outruns the entire Mainland defense, going 60-yards for another score that put the bolts up, 34-7, with 5:06 to play.
With a playmaker like that, its easy for the Bolts to be confident they can win every game this season. But they still have some tough challenges ahead, including Washington Township, Winslow, Delsea, Cherokee and St. Augustine Prep. Four of those teams are ranked in the Best 11 rankings as the top teams in South Jersey.
“We just have to take it one week at a time. Our offense and defense have been grinding, and I’m happy about the work we’ve been putting in and how it’s showing out on the field,” Offer said. “It goes from the scout team all the way up to the starters, everybody is giving their best. That’s what OBG football is. We’re very focused and very disciplined. We know what our goal is but we’re taking it week-by-week, game-by-game. We want to work on our mistakes each week and just play OBG football, that’s all I can say.”
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 1 Millville at No. 5 Washington Township, Sept. 20, 6 p.m. No. 4 Mainland Regional hosts No. 7 Cherokee on Sept. 20 at 6 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
