RallyNorth.net

Fri, Sep 28, 2007 07:00 PM @ Bishop Fenwick

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Hingham	14	14	14	0	42
Bishop Fenwick	12	12	3	0	27

Hingham football runs away from Fenwick

Friday, September, 28 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

PEABODY | After breaking down last weekend against Masconomet, the Bishop Fenwick football team was in repair mode last night.

The Crusaders may have come up empty in the victory department | dropping a 42-27 decision to Hingham for their first back-to-back losses since 2003 | but strides were made to get back to the team that is considered the favorite to win the Catholic Central League this season.

Fenwick, which last lost two straight against Malden Catholic on Thanksgiving and a Division 5 playoff game to Tyngsboro four years ago, has surrendered 11 touchdowns in two weeks. With senior starters T.J. Fossa, Lucas Sobezenski, and Cody Johnson each sidelined due to injury, the Crusaders were up against the wall defensively.

Hingham featured a high-octane offense, led by shifty back Chris Constantine. Constantine out-performed Fenwick's Bobby Tarr with 200 yards on the ground and four touchdowns. Tarr was limited to 192 yards and one score.

"I know they scored 42 points, but I thought our kids read their keys and did what we asked them to do. They flew to the ball and played with fire," Fenwick (2-2) coach Dave Woods said. "There's no question I'm happy to be the football coach of the team tonight. I'm not happy we lost, but I'm proud of the way we played."

It seemed as if Fenwick came into the game believing it needed to score every possession in order to win. Kyle White opened the game by recovering his own on-sides kick, and Tarr sprinted 49 yards on the first play for a quick Crusaders' lead.

Before the first quarter was over, three more touchdowns were scored for a 14-12 Hingham advantage. Fenwick added another touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.

Fenwick strayed from the usual gameplan of feeding Tarr on virtually every play, instead mixing in some other ball carriers and executing a few play-action passes.

Senior quarterback John Baker threw three first half touchdown passes to Dale Crispan (44 yards), Ben Terenzoni (71), and Anthony Pisani (8), but four Constantine touchdowns and four failed conversions for Fenwick resulted in a 28-24 halftime lead for the Harbormen.

Tarr managed 131 first half yards on nine carries. Hingham (3-1) made some second half adjustments, however, and slowed the Fenwick offense.

"We tried tackling. It was a new technique we just developed at halftime," Hingham coach Paul Killinger said tongue-in-cheek. "We were awful the first half. You've got to tackle. He (Tarr) is a great back and they've got some good, tough kids, but we just didn't tackle."

Fenwick's only second half points came on a 24-yard field goal from Brendan Barrett, but Woods felt the stalled offense was based more on play-calling.

"Is that all we got, one field goal?," Woods said. "I don't think they did anything different, but I think we got away from some of the things we do. We spread it out and tried to throw the ball a lot more, and we're not prepared to do that yet."

Preparation was a key word for this week's game, and being well-prepared will continue to be the focus until the Crusaders get back on track.

"Hingham runs a difficult offense. You need some time to prepare for that, and we knew coming in that we weren't prepared defensively to take away everything that they ran," Woods said. "We had a short week of practice and just told the kids, 'Do the best you can.' That's what they did."