RallyNorth.net

Sat, Sep 23, 2017 01:00 PM @ Pentucket

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Bishop Fenwick	0	6	8	6	20
Pentucket	0	7	0	7	14

Bishop Fenwick pushes past Pentucket

WEST NEWBURY - In a battle of the trenches, whoever controls the line - and thus the clock - has their way.

It took a while, but in Saturday afternoon's clash between Bishop Fenwick and Pentucket, the Crusaders started to win the war of attrition in the second half.

Though the Sachems had a chance to at least tie the game late, the Crusader defense hung on to give their team a 20-14 victory - its first of the season - on the road behind Pentucket High School.

"We kind of ran out of gas and out of players," said Sachems (1-2) coach Steve Hayden. "Some players stepped up and did a nice job."

The Sachems made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter starting with a Gus Flaherty pass to senior captain Nathan McGrail for a 64-yard catch-and-score, making it 20-14 Crusaders (1-2) with 5:30 left.

"We ran an out-and-up," said McGrail. "(The defender) was playing kind of far off me and I ran out and he bit and I went right up the sideline and caught the ball and ran as fast as I could."

McGrail finished with six catches for 96 yards, while Flaherty was 6-of-13 for 96 yards.

Then, on defense, the Sachems stepped up to stop the surging Crusader rushing game and get the ball back on a Jourdan Journeay stop in the backfield on 3rd down.

But it was the Crusaders who had the last laugh, smothering the green-and-white receivers for four straight plays before David Cifuentes, who was instrumental on offense too, dropped Flaherty in the backfield for a turnover on downs.

Pentucket led 7-6 at the break, but the Crusaders responded early out of the break.

The black-and-gold steamrolled down the field and took the lead on a 5-yard rush from Mateo Cifuentes plus a DelVecchio two-point conversion rush.

David Cifuentes scored on a 2-yard rush in the fourth to bad Fenwick's lead.

The Sachems Jacob Codair blocked the extra point meaning a score and a point after would win it, but the home team couldn't get the offense moving.

"The biggest thing was us not having some of our players in there," said Hayden. "But give Fenwick credit, they defended pretty well."

In the first half, the Sachems saw senior captain Brandon Wilbur put up 78 rushing yards, including a 54-yard scamper up the middle, to give his team the lead early in the second quarter. He finished as the team's leading rusher on the day with 73 yards.

The Sachem defense, with Journeay, Codair, Jacob Luke, Liam Murray and others played well all day, despite a few breakdowns.

"We had some injuries on the defensive side," said Wilbur. "But I think we had some younger kids step up and play in the fire."

 

Bishop Fenwick 20, Pentucket 14

Bishop Fenwick (1-2)     0     6     8     6 — 20

Pentucket (1-2)     0     7     0     7 — 14

 

B - Derek DelVecchio 2 run (rush failed)

P - Brandon Wilbur 58 run (Daniels Lathum kick)

B - Mateo Cifuentes 5 run (DelVecchio rush)

B - David Cifuentes 2 run (kick failed)

P - Nathan McGrail 64 pass from Gus Flaherty (Lathum kick)

 

RUSHING: PENTUCKET (18-87) - Brandon Wilbur 9-73, Gus Flaherty 4-7, Jacob Codair 4-5, Ethan Dore 1-2. FENWICK (43-175) - David Cifuentes 15-63, Derek DelVecchio 13-46, Luis Naranjo 10-36, Mateo Cifuente 2-18, Brandon Kenney 3-12;

PASSING: P - Flaherty 6-13-0, 96; BF - DelVecchio 15-19-10, 120

RECIEVING: P - Nathan McGrail 6-96; BF - Stefano Fabiano 6-54, George Fiskatoris 4-36, Keegan O'Connor 3-12, Chris Fisher 1-10,  Dylan Mullen 1-8;