NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. - In the first quarter of Friday night’s Kelley-Rex showdown at Community Field, North Attleboro eclipsed its point total from last week before its offense even stepped foot on the field.
In fact, the Rocketeers only ran one offensive play in the entire opening 11 minutes and yet held a 21-7 lead over visiting Mansfield. The momentum of that opening quarter, which included a pair of special teams touchdowns would carry North to a comprehensive 42-22 victory over its division rival.
“We scored 42 points and won a big game but there’s a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the football,” said North coach Don Johnson after the game. “The special teams were good tonight too -- gave us some breathing room…but there was plenty of room for improvement and plenty of big games left.”
Mansfield got the ball to begin the game, but was forced to punt by a fired up North Attleboro defense. The Rocketeers came after the punt and sophomore Bobby Mylod blocked the kick, which was then picked up by Pat Munley who took it 24 yards for the opening score.
“It was something that we saw in films and we wanted to go after it on the very first punt as long as the field position was favorable,” said Johnson about the punt block call. “Pat Munley is a two-way player for us and has been playing for two years. He’s one of those tough senior leaders up front that we have.”
The momentum was short-lived, as sophomore Nick Rajotte raced 89 yards up the middle of the field on the ensuing kick to give the Rocketeers back the lead.
After a Mansfield turnover on downs, North took over with only seconds left in the first quarter and junior quarterback Brodey Barr took the first snap 58 yards on a keeper up the middle and raced to the end zone as time ran out on the quarter. One offensive play in the books and North held a 21-7 lead.
“You take those 14 away and we have a heck of a ballgame, but you spot them 14 on special teams in the first half was the killer and then it came down to us not finishing drives,” said Mansfield coach Mike Redding. “We moved the ball and sustained drives but they made the big plays and got points.”
Mansfield got two points in the second quarter on a bad snap by North at its own three. The ball sailed out of the end zone to make it 21-9 and the Hornets got the ball back on the ensuing kick at the 50. Again, they could not sustain momentum as Andrew Hanwell came up with his first of two interceptions to get North the ball back at its own 15.
The Rocketeers turned the interception into points. Rajotte burst through the line for 71 yards to put North into the red zone. Two plays later, Hanwell took a reverse 13 yards to give North a 28-9 halftime lead.
On the opening kick of the second half, North fumbled to give the Hornets some hope of a comeback. The Rocketeers defense came through with a huge stop, including back-to-back sacks by senior captain Maxwell Kroll ended that the drive (the second on fourth down after a bad exchange between Carafa and his center).
Johnson said, “That’s what good teams have to do. When things go wrong, we cough up the football, that’s when you need your defense to step up and they did tonight, so I think we’ve shown some progress there.”
“He’s our guy that’s our best athlete out there,” said Johnson about Hanwell. “He’s a guy that can make big plays for us both on offense and defense and in the special teams too. Tonight it showed; he came through for us.”
Redding added, “Every time it seemed like we needed one more score to be in position to have the ball back with the chance to take the lead and they came up with a big play.”
Q’Ra Guichard (nine carries, 63 yards), who was in on almost every tackle for the Hornets defense, got Mansfield one score closer on a 41-yard touchdown run on its next possession. But, once again, North had the answer. On the first play, Mylod burst around the edge and went 51 yards for a back-breaking touchdown that pushed the lead to 42-15.
“We played hard, but we just can’t give up the big plays that we did tonight,” said Redding.
Sophomore Brian Lynch (17 carries, 117 yards) tacked on a 25-yard touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter, but Mansfield got no closer in part because of a second interception by Hanwell. It was a huge improvement by the North defense from its opener against Stoughton.
“We’ve got some young bodies getting some work in there, but they’re working hard,” said Johnson. “That’s what you hope will happen, but when you play younger guys you never know how quickly they’re going to progress.”
“I think it’s a good confidence boost,” said Hanwell about the big win, “but we can’t let it go to our heads. We’ve got to keep going and we’ve got KP and Attleboro that are tough games…we’ve just got to come out firing again.”
North Attleboro hosts King Philip at Community Field next Friday night, while Mansfield will host Attleboro at Alumni Field on Saturday.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.