Malden gets an exciting ‘Huynh’ in opener, ‘4’ sure!

Tornados get brilliant special teams play, hold on for a 27-20 victory in the season opener

By Steve Freker

Heading into its Thursday, September 12 regular season and home opener game versus Lynn Tech, Malden High’s football locker room closely resembled a very busy auto body shop. Banged up, dinged up and with more than a few loose parts hanging around, Malden’s roster featured more than a few injuries, ranging from nagging to bigtime. Thus, Malden was entering this one with a scaled-down agenda: 1) Simple offense; 2) Aggressive defense; and that old axiom from the Al Davis “School of Football,”…3) “Just win, baby!”

Malden had plenty of confidence, coming into the game with the most teamwide experience than the last five seasons put together. Regardless, fourth-year Head Coach Witche Exilhomme and his coaching staff still came in with more question marks than “The Riddler” from the Batman chronicles.

Just like when your coach tells the players that all the butterflies will fly away after that first good hit, so goes a lot of anxiety when somebody grabs the game by the throat and runs away with it – literally. Malden had already taken a 7-0 lead early when senior quarterback Aidan Brett had capped a 9-play Malden offensive drive with a 4-yard burst up the B-gap. Freshman Waslin Etienne’s PAT made it 7-0.

Next up? Meet Malden High senior split end Johnson Huynh, #4 in your 2024 Tornado football roster. Like many of his teammates, Huynh was far from 100 percent physically, but deemed fit for duty despite being limited in practice for the past 10 days with various ailments. On his first touch of the day, Huynh fielded a Tech Tiger punt at his own 39-yard line, fake-stepped left and split two receivers and dashed to the right sideline; about 12-15 yards later, he was suddenly across midfield. And with 30 yards left – nothing else in front of him – he went all the way for a 61-yard punt return touchdown, the very first score of his Malden career. A conversion rush stalled and Malden quickly led, 13-0.

Malden’s defense, led by senior captain Earl Fevrier and junior linebacker Zachary Johnson, held Tech to a three-and-out and it was punt time again. Actually, it was #4’s time again. Once again, they boomed a punt downfield, and for the second time of the night, it was Johnson Huynh underneath, this time at Malden’s 43-yard line.

There were no fakes and jukes this time. Huynh just used a hard and fast step, busted through the Tech first line and blazed 57 yards in all, back into the end zone. Quickly, Malden owned a 21-0 lead, and there were still four quarters to be played.

By scoring twice on back-to-back punt return touchdowns, Huynh tied a Malden school record first set in 1976 and then tied again on Thanksgiving Day in 2015 by the brother of the present coach, Danley Exilhomme, in running back the two punts for scores. “That was a huge boost for us and gave us a ton of confidence to keep going,” Coach Exilhomme said. “We were very happy for Johnson [Huynh] who worked as hard as anyone to get ready for this season and had been fighting through some injuries. He’s one of many of our guys trying to establish himself in a role. I think he really found one [tonight].”

After surrendering a touchdown to Tech in the second quarter that cut the lead to 20-7, Malden would add to its lead with another score right before the end of the first half. Zach Johnson made a big hit on the Lynn Tech return man on Malden’s only punt of the first half, causing a fumble at the Tech 35-yard line with 1:43 left to go in the second quarter. Malden senior Wyatt Dessert recovered for the Tornados, setting up Malden for one last drive. Malden inched closer and closer, and on the very last play of the first half, Tornado quarterback Aidan Brett hit fellow senior captain Kevin Exilhomme in the back of the end zone with a 9-yard TD pass, the first of each on the season for both players.

Malden led, 27-6, at halftime, after Etienne’s third PAT of the night, and it looked like the home team’s assault on the scoreboard would reverberate through the stadium all night long. Unfortunately for Malden, all that commotion came to a screeching halt once the second half began. For the rest of the game, it was a stall-fest for the Tornado offense, with Lynn Tech hanging in there and making a serious bid for a season-opening upset. The Malden defense still played tough with some heavy contact, and for most of the evening, “bend and not break,” but Lynn Tech was still able to penetrate the Malden secondary and zip in two more scores to more than make it a ballgame.

Tech Quarterback Jadiel Ortega, who had run in his team’s only score to that point in the second quarter, found the end zone with touchdown passes in the third and fourth quarters. Lynn Tech scored the only points of the third quarter for either team: a 34-yard TD pass to a wide open Dereon Phipps. In the fourth quarter, after a turnover on downs by Malden, Lynn Tech mounted another scoring drive and went five plays in lightning speed to cut the lead to 27-20 Malden with 7:55 left to play,

Leading by one score, 27-20, with 3:38 left on the clock and having possession of the ball, the Tornados appeared to be on the verge of sealing the win with a time-eating drive. But Malden chose to try and punch in one more score to put the game away. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way, as two passes from Brett were right on the money, but one was dropped and other went off another receiver’s hands incomplete. Malden chose to quick-kick punt on fourth down with Brett doing the honors, and Tech had a life with just under two minutes left to play in the game, with the ball on their own 38-yard line.

Ortega was far from done. He hit a medium range pass to Phipps for a gain of 15 yards to the Malden 47-yard line. The Lynn Tech QB then scrambled to the Malden 37-yard line before being stopped by being knocked out of bounds. With just seven seconds left to play, Tech had one last play, and a desperation pass by Ortega went off the outstretched fingertips of Phipps at the Malden 17-yard line with open green ahead of him as time expired.

“It’s the first game of the season and it’s pretty chaotic at times,” said Coach Exilhomme in an online report. “Everyone is trying to find themselves and figure out what they have. Credit to Lynn Tech, that’s a tough team and they played their hearts out.”

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Malden back in action tonight at Somerville, 6:00 p.m. kickoff

Next up for Malden (1-0) is a road trip to Dilboy Stadium in Somerville to take on the Greater Boston League rival Highlanders (0-1) tonight, Friday, September 20 at 6:00 p.m. Somerville fell to Revere last Thursday, 48-12. Malden then goes to Lynn Classical on Thursday, Sept. 26 and then to Northeast Metro Tech on Saturday, October 4.

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EXTRA POINTS: Malden was playing its opener last week without the services of two of its captains, including its best and most experienced player, senior linebacker James Hyppolite, and its top running back, Mateus Brito. Brito sustained a broken collarbone in his left shoulder in the scrimmage versus BC High two weeks ago, and Hyppolite has been out with a knee issue for the past 10 days. “It is very tough not having James [Hyppolite] and Matt [Brito] out there on the field,” Coach Witche Exilhomme said. “Those are two of our best players and we really miss them. We can get by with other players like Zach Johnson and Kevin [Exilhomme] stepping up, but how much stronger are we with both of our captains out there on the field?”… Malden also saw continued progress from freshman standout Jayden McGuffie, a 5-11, 180 speedster who can play most every skill position offensively and defensively. “You always think you want to go slowly with the younger players, but Jayden is ready right now and he shows it every time he is out there.” McGuffie, who had two older brothers play (and play well) for Malden High before him, including Davian McGuffie last season, looks like he has a promising career ahead of him in a Tornado uniform… Malden senior 6-2, 265 Earl Fevrier was an absolute beast on both sides of the ball last Thursday, running people over out of the backfield, catching passes as a tight end and then steamrolling Lynn Tech running backs out of the Malden defense. “Earl [Fevrier] will definitely be a force to be reckoned with this year, wherever we put him,” Coach Exilhomme said.

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Linescore

Malden 27, Lynn Tech 20

Lynn Tech       0          6          8          6          – 20

Malden                        20        7          0          0          – 27

First quarter

Malden: Aiden Brett 4-yard run (Waslin Etienne kick)

Malden: Johnson Huynh 61-yard punt return (rush failed)

Malden: Huynh 56-yard punt return (Etienne kick)

Second quarter

Lynn Tech: Jadiel Ortega 2-yard run (rush failed)

Malden: Kervenson Exilhomme 9-yard pass from Brett (Etienne kick)

Third quarter

Lynn Tech: Dereon Phipps 34-yard pass from Ortega (run)

Fourth quarter

Lynn Tech: Colin McGough 11-yard pass from Ortega (kick failed)