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KINGSTON- A year ago Tevin Williams made his first career start at quarterback for Williamsport against Valley West and certainly looked the part.
He was uncertain with his decision-making, took a few sacks rather than throw the ball away but still came away with the victory.
As the 2026 season kicked off, Williams found himself back at Spartan Stadium only this time a more polished signal caller who at least for one night made all the right moves. The junior finished with 194 yards passing, 213 yards rushing and for good measure returned an onside kick 60 yards for a touchdown as the Millionaires opened the season with a 41-21 victory over the Spartans.
The win gave new Williamsport coach Kevin Brown his first victory.
“I am extremely proud of him,” Brown said of Williams, who also rushed for three touchdowns. “A few times in the game a lot of us were teetering on panic. We settled down and came out in the second half and made a couple of adjustments.”
The biggest adjustment according to Brown was blocking better. Once that corrected itself the Millionaires finished the game with 346 yards rushing.
Valley West did hang tough in the first half. After falling behind 3-0 the Spartans moved the ball into Williamsport territory but a strip sack turned the ball over. The Spartans took a 7-3 lead with 5:28 left in the second quarter when Noah Council took a pass from Damien Eastman and went 74 yards for a touchdown.
Another Valley West turnover inside Williamsport territory, this one an interception by Williams led to him capping a drive with a 23-yard touchdown run to make it 9-7.
“I think we were moving the ball well, we were running the ball but we started shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Valley West coach Brydon Rukstalis, who like Brown was making his head coaching debut. “We showed we are a competitive team and we can play with anybody. We have to correct the little things. I think a lot of the stuff we gave up does not show exactly what happened in the game. They were more prepared on the little things than we were.”
Williamsport held a 16-13 lead going into the fourth quarter and quickly took control, scoring three consecutive touchdowns, two of them coming from Trey Damschroder to put the game away.
“What I’ve seen in the past is the kids would get down on themselves and feel they were out of the game,” Rukstalis said. “I didn’t get that sense, we still hung in there. Let’s just figure it out and keep rolling.”