BRAINTREE – Saturday’s matchup between Thayer Academy and St. Mark’s was excellent for followers who like bodily, hard-nosed soccer.
Sturdy defensive position play from either side stored the sport low scoring, however a second-quarter interception returned for a landing and a prolonged fourth-quarter drive offered all of the offense Thayer wanted to drag off a 14-0 upset victory over the beforehand unbeaten Lions.
“They’re a hungry bunch,” Thayer head coach Jeff Toussaint mentioned. “We’ve been stacking good practices, they usually got here out intense. That they had this recreation marked.”
This was the second shutout the Tigers (4-2) have had within the final three weeks they usually have been in a position to maintain the Lions (5-2) to only 57 complete yards of offense. This was towards a St. Mark’s staff that had outscored opponents 139-30 in its first 5 video games.
“All week lengthy in school, everybody was saying ‘this staff is undefeated, they’re staff,’ ” Toussaint mentioned. “We’ve performed some good groups, we felt assured for this, we now have some stalwarts within the secondary on protection they usually did an superior job as we speak.”
The Lions began with possession and had the drive stall out after six performs. Thayer responded with a three-and-out and a brief punt that put the Lions on the Tigers’ 35.
Craig Haas then led the Lions down the sphere and put them in a goal-to-go scenario. It regarded like an actual risk to begin the scoring, however a go to the five-yard line was tipped by Will Bewley and intercepted by Neil MacKinnon, who took it 95 yards for a landing.
“I used to be really lined up on the mistaken aspect,” MacKinnon mentioned. “Bewley was there to make that tip. I used to be simply doing my greatest to attempt to return it.”
Neither offense was in a position to get a lot going within the the rest of the primary half because the defensive traces took over. Thayer captain C.J. Talabi-Oates was particularly robust, recording three sacks and derailing a number of St. Mark’s drives.
“I used to be attempting to wreck the momentum,” Talabi-Oates mentioned. “They have been seeking to rating, they usually had some momentum. They train us that we now have to maintain our heads up and hold getting after the ball.”
The staff’s would commerce punts within the second half till Thayer had a 10-minute landing drive. The 15-play drive featured 10 touches from Drew St. Pierre, who ultimately completed it off with a one-yard dive into the tip zone.
“I run the ball rather a lot, I’ve run the ball my complete life,” St. Pierre mentioned. “I’m used to getting hit on each play and I like my line a lot. They provide all the things they have and I can’t thank them sufficient.”
St. Pierre would see just a few extra runs on Thayer’s subsequent drive and completed his day with 20 carries for 72 yards and a landing. The Tigers protection pressured three turnovers and had 5 sacks on Haas.
Thayer is now forward of the Lions within the league standings as a result of head-to-head victory and a robust end to the 12 months might put this system in a bowl recreation. Talabi-Oates mentioned that is the purpose for this system.
“We haven’t had a successful season in period of time,” Talabi-Oates mentioned. “Now, I’m fairly certain we now have the one seed, and now we’re searching for that bowl recreation.”
