MANSFIELD, MASS. – On a cold Thanksgiving morning, Mansfield capped off a tough season and gave a glimpse of hope towards the future as they pulled out a 31-14 victory over Foxboro for the second straight year.
“It’s been challenge after challenge and a lot of adversity,” Mansfield head coach Mike Redding said. “They just kept fighting and playing together. Just a great way to end – to beat Quincy on the road and to come back and beat Foxboro - two good playoff teams. They just hung in there and no one ever hung their heads. We overcame a lot of injuries and it was just a great way to finish for a group that took on all challenges and kept on fighting.”
Foxboro started the game with the upper hand in possession time as they put together two lengthy drives. The Warriors received the opening kickoff and went on an eight play drive that ended in the red zone. Connor Driscoll recovered a Jake Pond fumble at Mansfield’s 12 to stop the first drive.
The Warriors got the ball back just three plays later as the Hornets couldn’t get anything going on their first drive. Foxboro put together another promising drive that lasted 11 plays going deep into the red zone. Ronnie Martin, Keeyon Neel and Jake Pond had several key rushes that put the Warriors at the Mansfield 13. However, the drive came to a halt when Ben Wisniewski intercepted a Nolan Roger pass right in front of the end zone. Wisniewski’s return set Mansfield up at the Warrior 47.
The Hornets took advantage of the interception. Brian Lynch had a 17 yard run to the right putting the Hornets at the Warrior 26. Mansfield faced 4th and 7 on the 23 and Redding took a gamble and went for it. Matt Carafa struck a pass over the middle to a sliding Matt Hogan, good for 19 years and a first down. Beau Palanza finished the nine play, 47 yard drive with a two yard rush resulting in a 7-0 lead for the Hornets with 9:00 left in the second quarter.
Foxboro then created another promising lengthy drive. The Warriors continued to ground and pound as they rushed the ball 12 times during their 15 play drive. Martin, Neel, Pond and an end around from Austin Ryan contributed with 53 yards on the ground helping put the Warriors at the Mansfield 18. The Hornets forced a 4th and two and Foxboro took their chance and went for it. Andrew Horstmann came up with a big tackle on Neel resulting in the Warriors to have a turnover on downs at the Mansfield 17.
Mansfield capitalized on the Foxboro turnover. Carafa found Mike Boen for 15 yards and then a delivered a 39 yard strike over the middle to Mike Arnold which put the Hornets at the Foxboro 13. Carafa finished the successful eight play, 83 yard drive as he connected with Hogan to the right for a 13 yard touchdown extending the Mansfield lead to 14-0 at halftime.
“They played tough upfront and we got some breaks early - we forced a fumble and get the interception in the red zone – things that just haven’t happened and we took advantage of them to get the 14 point lead,” Redding said. “We had big stops on third and fourth downs and the offense was clicking. Lynchie (Brian Lynch) ran hard and Matt made some big throws. It seemed to all come together today and the special teams were great. It was a great time to do it. Everything fell into place.”
Carafa continued his stellar play on the opening drive of the second half. The senior quarterback completed a 9 yard pass to Lynch, a 17 yard pass to Hogan and then Boen came down with a 27 yard reception amongst a defensive pass interference. The Hornets failed to get into the end zone but were able to get more points on the scoreboard as Diogo DeSousa made a 25 yard field goal attempt to put the score at 17-0 with 6:00 left in the third.
After forcing a three and out, Mansfield struck again. Lynch found a hole and went 42 yards, setting the Hornets up at the Foxboro three. Matt Garvin was able to finish the short drive with a one yard rush for a score extending the lead to 24-0.
The Warriors finally broke through it was just too little too late. Neel led Foxboro down the field on five rushes, highlighted by a carry that went 47 yards to put the Warriors at Mansfield’s 33 yard line. Rogers found Ryan for 11 yards and Martin had a carry going 8 yards. Neel finished Foxboro’s first scoring drive on a 4 yard rush and Rogers converted a two point try as he found Pond in the end zone cutting the Hornet lead to 24-8.
Mansfield put the icing on the cake as they answered right back on the ensuing drive. The Hornets didn’t attempt a pass but were still able to find pay dirt. Lynch and Palanza combined for nine rushes, covering 51 yards. Palanza found the end zone again for his second score of the game with an 8 yard rush with 4:16 remaining in the season.
Neel added his second touchdown of the game on a one yard rush to put the score at 31-14 as the Warriors failed to convert their second two point try.
The Hornets finish at 6-5 and the Warriors finish at 7-3. It was an injury-riddled season for Mansfield but they were still able to clinch a postseason berth. Foxboro had a great season before bowing out in the second round of the D4 South playoffs.
Mansfield looks to rebound next year as they have several key starters returning including Brian Lynch, Austin Cooney, Connor Driscoll, AJ Gibbs, Diogo DeSousa, Connor Finnerty and Josh Schafer.
“We feel good. We played a bunch of sophomores – Gibbs, Cooney played a lot on the line, Lynchie at running back, Driscoll in the secondary. We got a good junior group – Schafer, Finerty, Tyrone Pascual played a lot,” said Redding. “We do have to do some rebuilding as we are losing great players but business as usual. We will rebuild in the off season and come back and hopefully all of the injuries will be out of our way this year”
The Mansfield coach added, “The sad part is not seeing Brendan Hill play today, not seeing Curtis [Boisvert] run the ball, not seeing Joe [Moreshead] make tackles but those guys were great leaders all year. They just did what they could to help us. Everyone played for them today and wanted to end on a good note. Those guys will go onto bigger better things at college and will hopefully have great careers and play a lot more football.”
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