NORTH EASTON, Mass. – With its first ever Davenport Division championship already wrapped up, Sharon went into its annual Thanksgiving Day matchup with Oliver Ames looking to earn the first victory over its archrivals since 2003, and in the process, gain a little more momentum before facing Pembroke in the Division 3 Eastern Mass. semifinals.
Unfortunately for Sharon, they were plagued by turnovers, penalties, and unfavorable fourth down situations in its 35-7 loss to OA Thursday afternoon at Muscato stadium.
While they can put this loss behind them and look ahead to Pembroke, head coach Dave Morse admitted that the Eagles need to watch the film and make adjustments before Tuesday night’s matchup.
“We certainly had some chances early,” said Morse, who saw his team drop to 8-3. “[We made] a couple of mistakes, penalties and that will kill you."
From the first offensive possession, the Eagles could not capitalize on their chances.
After driving into the red zone thanks to the running of Sean Asnes, OA’s defense stood up with its backs against the walls and forced Sharon to a fourth down in the red zone. The Eagles did not convert on that fourth down setting up a frustrating turn of events.
Despite that, Sharon looked like they had momentum on its side when quarterback Sean O’Neill connected with receiver Jared Fogel on a 37-yard touchdown pass with 30 seconds left in the first half. However, the Tigers took the ensuing possession and extended their lead to 22-7 at halftime thanks to Mike MacMillan’s 30-yard touchdown reception on a hail mary from Nick Cidado.
“We went down and scored near the end of the half, but the hail mary gave them a little of the momentum back,” Morse said. “We made some adjustments coming out of the second half and our defense played well. But we just couldn’t capitalize and get back into the swing of things.”
Initially, the Eagles defense responded on their first series in the second half. And despite the offense being stopped on fourth down, they still were in the swing of things.
But after seemingly stopping the Tigers offense to a three and out on the next series, head coach Jim Artz called a fake punt and Cidado got a first down late in the third quarter. With the series extended, Cidado found Greg Cummings in the end zone for the third time and put the game out of reach.
“We moved a little bit on offense at the beginning of the [second] half and we had some penalties that halted things,” Morse said. “You can’t put the defense out there for that long, there going to wear down eventually and that’s just a fact.”
It’s not a result Morse and company were looking for, but they’ll have to put this game behind them as quick as possible before Pembroke.
“The games on the schedule against a rival and we want to win it regardless of what’s ahead of us,” said the second year Eagle coach. “We showed up to win a game and me and the rest of the coaches have to a better job at that. Hopefully we can learn from this and bounce back against Pembroke.”
Not all is lost for the Eagles, who will be looking to continue a trend of bouncing back after a loss. If history repeats itself, then they could very well be heading to their first state championship appearance next Saturday.