WESTWOOD, Mass. - For the second-seeded Attleboro High School Blue Bombardiers, a great run, a turnaround from a .500 finish last season, has come to an end. The top-seeded Xaverian Brothers High School Hawks are headed to the MIAA Division 1 Super Bowl after a come from behind victory over the Bombardiers Saturday afternoon.
“We came out in the second half knowing we needed to run the football, because obviously we didn’t want to give [Attleboro’s offense] anymore opportunities,” said Xaverian coach Charlie Stevenson. “They’re very explosive, and we really took control of the line of scrimmage… They’re very good, very well coached, very good skill players, and they gave us everything we could handle all over the field. I really have to congratulate Coach [Mike] Strachan, he’s really done a fantastic job, and those kids played their hearts out tonight.”
“There’s a couple of missed opportunities that we had,” said Attleboro coach Mike Strachan. “I thought they did a really good job with pressure in many different areas… I got to give a lot of credit to [Xaverian]. This team’s well coached, they’re physical, and they had good match-ups… They [just] wore us down in the end.”
Leading the way for the Hawks offense was running back Shayne Kaminski, with the senior having 30 carries for 200 yards and scoring two touchdowns, including the game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“Shayne [Kaminski] was a monster for us today,” said Stevenson.
From the start, both teams proved a challenge for each other with a very back and forth first quarter. After Shawn Reardon sacked Jake Farrell for a loss of 15, the Xaverian quarterback through into heavy Attleboro coverage and paid the price when his pass was picked off by Joe Deiratani near midfield.
The Hawks would take their revenge, and control of the ball back the very next play when a Damon Belin fumble was recovered by Zachary Parsons on the Attleboro 44 yard line. Xaverian drove towards the end zone, mostly on the back of Kaminski, but were shut out by the Attleboro defense and forced to make a 19 yard field goal attempt, which Matt Rogers missed.
However, there would be a different outcome on their next drive, when Jake Farrell connected with Coby Tippett at midfield for a big 48 yard touchdown to take the early lead midway through the second quarter. Rogers’ PAT was successful, as were the rest for the day, and Xaverian lead 7-0.
The lead wouldn’t stand for long as the Bombardiers struck back quickly. Facing a 3rd & 10 on his own 35, Tim Walsh scrambled out of the pocket and zig-zagged through Xaverian defenders for a 19 yard run plus a face mask penalty, setting up a 32 yard touchdown pass to Brenden Massey. Mike Cannata, also successful on all four of his attempts, made the PAT to tie everything up again at 7-7.
Attleboro’s Pat Dunn, who was celebrating his birthday Saturday, picked off Farrell on the next Hawks drive as the half winded down, and Walsh connected with Luke Morrison on three passes, including pulling down an incredible one-handed catch for a 35 yard gain and then again the next play when Walsh found him wide open from six out, and just like that, Attleboro had a 14-7 lead, their first of the game, with 0:38 left before the half. A last-ditch effort on a Hail Mary attempt by Farrell was picked off by Brandon Clark as the clock ran out.
The Bombardiers received the ball to start the second half, and capitalized on the opportunity as they finished off the drive with a 38 yard touchdown pass to Tom Burns to increase their lead to 14, as it was 21-7.
From there, the Hawks responded immediately on their next drive, which was capped off by a Kaminski 18 yard touchdown run bringing them within seven of the Bombardiers midway through the third quarter.
The game then turned back into a battle of attrition for the rest of the quarter, with a couple turnovers for each side, including Ernest Simon picking off a pass from Walsh, a failed fake punt attempt by the Bombardiers, and a turnover on downs on a 4th & Goal for the Hawks after Kenny Kern was stopped at the two yard line by a strong Attleboro defensive showing.
The tides soon turned though on the next Xaverian drive, capped off by another Kaminski touchdown run, this one a burst from 37 yards out, to tie the game up at 21 all. The Hawks defense then stepped up to force the powerful Bombardier offense into a three and out, and then the first play of their next drive saw a Farrell pass to Nick Colantuoni for a 37-yard touchdown as the senior receiver darted down the sideline passed several Bombardiers and brought himself out into the open, past several Attleboro defenders, to take a 28-21 lead, a lead which they would never relinquish.
Xaverian added to their total, and stomped out an Attleboro chance to tie it up again late, off a pick six by Damian Wood, returned back for 24 yards to put the Hawks up by 14 with less than five minutes to play, a daunting task for the Bombardiers, yet one they were willing to take on. Not discouraged by their previous drive, the Bombardiers drove down field and scored off of a 18 yard pass by Walsh to Damon Belin, who’d been kept in check for most of the game by Xaverian after running all over New Bedford and Bridgewater-Raynham the past two games.
The Bombardiers tried for the onside kick; however their attempt would fall into the hands of the Hawks, who would run out the rest of the clock and seal their victory and a trip to the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium as D1 South champions.
“[Xaverian] were getting a lot of pressure on us all game,” said Walsh. “It was just tough at the end, we didn’t have much time, we only had a couple of timeouts, and we had to use them when they were on offense, so it was just tough."
“It really [was a great run],” said Strachan of his team’s performance this year, and his first at the helm of the Blue Bombardiers football program. “We kept talking to the team all year [that] we needed to finish strong, and we got a really important game coming up against North Attleboro for our program, and we got to get ready for that game.”
Xaverian will face the D1 North champion Central Catholic Raiders, who upset the Everett Crimson Tide, winners of the past four MIAA D1 Super Bowls, 20-14, at Gillete Stadium in Foxboro on December 7.
Attleboro will travel to arch-rivals North Attleboro with a shot at becoming the first Bombardier team in history to defeat the Rocketeers twice in a season.
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