BROOKLINE – Some groups may falter after taking a shot to the mouth early.
Cheshire Academy determined to get proper again up and maintain preventing Saturday, and relied on Keegan Croucher to steer the cost. The Ole Miss commit completed 16-of-23 passing for 257 yards and a pair of touchdowns Saturday, because the Cats (7-3) rallied from an early deficit to seize the NEPSAC’s Danny Smith Bowl with a 31-20 win over Dexter Southfield (7-3).
“It’s large,” Croucher stated of the victory. “It’s loopy. It feels superior. It was an enormous turnout at the moment with the group … so it feels good to deliver it house.”
It was a rematch of a regular-season contest from Oct. 3, which Dexter Southfield received in a nail-biter (29-23).
This time round, Dexter Southfield had an important begin. Michael Thomas returned the sport’s opening kickoff 55 yards. A penalty on the finish of the play set his group up within the purple zone immediately. Simply moments later, junior operating again Lamarri Sanchez-Coleman plowed into the tip zone for a one-yard landing rush, offering Dexter Southfield a right away 6-0 benefit simply 1:26 into play.
Nonetheless, Cheshire Academy swung again with authority because the second quarter started. Croucher led his group downfield and fired a bullet towards the tip zone. Aidan Good hauled within the go for a 30-yard landing reception, because the Cats jumped in entrance 7-6 with 11:39 left within the body.
“We don’t love to do something simple,” stated Cheshire Academy coach Invoice Mella. “We love to do issues the onerous means. My group may be very resilient. We anticipated it. We anticipated them to make performs. That’s a really, very gifted group, and so they performed a troublesome (Class) A schedule this 12 months. So we anticipated them to make performs. That’s simply the sort of means we deal with it. You make a play, we’re going to make extra.”
The Cats did simply that. In a while with 5:34 left within the second quarter, Croucher dumped a go over the center to Jojo Williams. The senior wideout knifed his means by means of site visitors for a 20-yard landing reception, as Cheshire made it a 14-6 contest. The Cats would tack on to their lead with a 37-yard area purpose by Nolan Pendergast, leaping forward 17-6 at intermission.
As play resumed for the third quarter, Cheshire Academy picked up proper the place it left off. Michael Caulfield punched in a four-yard landing rush, because the Cats prolonged their result in 24-6 with 7:19 left within the stanza.
Dexter Southfield responded with one in every of its greatest drives shortly afterward, as Sanchez-Coleman discovered the tip zone for a second time with a four-yard landing run himself. Rory Funke added a two-point rush, slicing it to a 24-14 ballgame.
However simply because the third quarter concluded, the Cats struck once more. Jacob Marz completed issues with a nine-yard landing scamper, as Cheshire took a 31-14 lead.
It was an excessive amount of for Dexter Southfield to beat. Funke would join with Charlie Hanafin for a seven-yard landing go to make it 31-20 with 7:33 remaining to cap the sport’s scoring.
Dexter Southfield is slated to graduate 10 seniors, together with Hanafin (a West Virginia commit) and Anthony Corridor (UNC). Each standouts can be ending heading off to their faculties early in January.
“Each season’s just a little completely different,” stated Dexter Southfield coach Casey Day. “Actually with the transfer as much as Class A this 12 months, it was lots completely different particularly than all of my different 15 years right here at Dexter. We simply talked rapidly to our group, to the group, in regards to the seniors leaving a legacy. Shifting ahead in Class A, I believe the massive factor is that we’ll look again on this season. How the seniors picked up on the place the fellows from the previous have left off, and introduced this system to a complete ‘nother stage. Going to a Class A Bowl sport, seven straight bowl video games now. However clearly this one particularly, I don’t suppose lots of people anticipated us to be right here.”
