WEST BRIDGEWATER — All week West Bridgewater head coach Justin Kogler reminded his workforce of the shellacking it took by the hands of Fairhaven final season.
A yr later when dealing with the Blue Devils once more, the Wildcats gave Kogler his prime second up to now in his seven seasons on the helm of West Bridgewater.
West Bridgewater and Fairhaven engaged in an epic back-and-forth offensive shootout that ended with the Wildcats prevailing with a wild 47-43 South Coast Convention victory.
“That is the most important (win),” Kogler mentioned. “Fairhaven is a perennial Tremendous Bowl contender. They’re once more this yr. They’re robust as hell. We pressured some turnovers, which I knew we had been going to do to hold with them.”
Ty Holmes (12 carries, 125 yards) spearheaded the monster offensive efficiency for West Bridgewater (4-1) with 4 complete touchdowns — three of them got here on the bottom.
However Holmes’ 41-yard landing reception from Ryan Nunes (8-for-12, 138 yards, two TDs) as he beat his defender down the sideline on a go route with 4:07 left ended up being the decisive rating. In truth, Holmes was the one who referred to as the play and it was the primary time the Wildcats ran all of it season.
“He mentioned, ‘If we come out in a sure formation, I can beat my man,’ ” Kogler mentioned. “So I mentioned, ‘OK, do it.’ And he did it.”
It felt like Fairhaven (5-1) had one final response late within the fourth quarter till West Bridgewater got here up with an enormous defensive stand.
The Blue Devils marched to West Bridgewater’s 13-yard line with underneath 20 seconds remaining however the Wildcats held agency, forcing an incompletion earlier than Rojon Burkes and Cole Lecomec got here collectively for a sack on Evan Lamontagne, who threw two touchdowns and ran for 2 extra within the loss.
The Wildcats obtained stress on Lamontagne once more on the ultimate play of the sport and his go sailed out of the again of the top zone to ship West Bridgewater right into a celebration.
“Everybody doubted us on this recreation,” Holmes mentioned. “In our workforce’s thoughts, we didn’t doubt ourselves. We went in each snap and performed our hardest. And that’s what obtained us this win.”
West Bridgewater’s protection additionally pressured three turnovers, none greater than when Nick Navin recovered a botched handoff on the Wildcats 5-yard line early within the fourth quarter. Nunes then took off on a 93-yard run earlier than Ton Polidori plunged in from a yard out to offer West Bridgewater a 41-35 lead.
Fairhaven responded because of a 33-yard landing run by Lamontagne on fourth down — it was the third time within the recreation Fairhaven scored on fourth down — however Holmes’ magic was just a bit an excessive amount of for the Blue Devils.
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