WILLIAMSTOWN — Trevor Oates piled up 189 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries and the Williamstown defense came away with four turnovers in a 20-7 victory over rival St. Marys Friday night.

The Yellowjackets (3-1) recovered three fumbles by the Blue Devils (4-1) and Brayden Modesitt had an interception. The WHS defense was tested early as St. Marys drove all the way to the 1-yard line on its opening possession, but was unable to come away with points. That seemed to set the tone for the rest of the game.

“Really happy, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” said Williamstown head coach Chris Beck.

“I thought our seniors did a great job on prepping and getting ready and being focused. Our kids played hard. Coach (Brian) Adams and the defensive staff did a great job and put a great gameplan in. That’s an explosive team and pretty good team over there that we just held to seven points.”

A 36-yard driving catch by Ben Long from Brennan Boron put the Devils at the Williamstown 3. Long then ran for 2 yards to get to the 1, but a false start moved the ball back. Boron was then tackled for a 4-yard loss by Leewood Molessa, and on fourth-and-goal from the 10, Darrien Bortey caught a pass but was stuffed at the 2 to force a turnover on downs.

After a 14-yard carry by Oates gave Williamstown breathing room, Modesitt faked a handoff and sprinted 84 yards to the end zone to make it 7-0.

“Thats a big swing there,” said St. Marys head coach Jodi Mote. “That first drive, we got to the goal line. You’ve got to get points there in situations like that.”

With 11:11 left in the second quarter, St. Marys drove to midfield before Boron was picked off by Modesitt to set up Williamstown’s second touchdown.

On a second-and-9 play, Oates took a carry 33 yard to the house to make it 14-0 at the 6:23 mark.

St. Marys had a good chance to answer when Ben Long’s 25-yard kick return and a horse collar tackle on Williamstown put the ball at the ‘Jackets’ 32-yard line. However, a botched snap a sack by Oates and Colton Melrose forced a St. Marys punt.

The Devils got another opportunity early in the third quarter after recovering a fumble by Oates and getting the ball as Williamstown’s 40. Two plays later, though, St. Marys fumbled another snap and Williamstown’s Nick Bower was there to jump on it.

Both teams punted it back and forth until the 11:57 mark in the fourth when St. Marys’ running game pushed the ball to Williamstown’s 42. But another shotgun snap was mishandled and resulted in a turnover.

“When you play in a big game you’ve got to limit turnovers and limit penalties,” Mote said. “I feel like (Williamstown) made some mistakes, but we made more than they did.”

This time, Williamstown capitalized. Oates ran for 47 yards to put the ball in the red zone and then scored on a 9-yard scamper to make it 20-0 and essentially put the game away.

St. Marys got on the board on it ensuing drive. Boron connected on a 19-yard pass to Cyle West and a 24-yard pass to Long, and then the St. Marys quarterback powered his way into the end zone from 2 yards out to make it 20-7. With just 6:21 left in regulation, though, it was too little, too late.

Williamstown accumulated 287 rushing yards on 43 carries. Modesitt amassed 99 yards on 10 totes to go along with Oates’ output.

“We could be a little more consistent on offense but overall a good effort by our kids,” Beck said.

“We have four seniors up front — Josh Ingram, Brady Ankrom, Leewood Molessa, Nick Bower. They’re the heart and soul of this team. They can move some guys around. I thought they did a great job leading us. Trevor’s just going to keep getting better. He’s a 6-foot, 190-pound tailback that just started playing tailback. He can wear on teams. With they defense they were doing, they were bringing the house, which stifled us at times and confused us. But, if you can get through that initial line, you can pop some big plays and we were fortunate to do that.”

Molessa was a force on both sides of the line all night for the Yellowjackets.

“I thought we came out a lot better this week,” he said. “We regrouped and had a lot better team defense this week. There wasn’t one person that was doing everything this week. I think we played really well as a team on that side of the ball.”

The win for the Class A No. 11-ranked Yellowjackets over the top-ranked Blue Devils should send a message to rest of the state.

“This is the one regular season game where we wanted to come out and make a statement,” Molessa said. “This is the game we look forward to every year. We have a lot of respect for those guys, but at the end, we’re trying to win a football game and we did tonight.”

Mote and his team are anxious to regroup and bounce back from the tough loss.

“I’ve always been a fighter,” he said. “When we get knocked down, we get back up and fight again.”

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com.