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41-0 Run to Close Out First Half Helps Rams Soar Past Red Hawks

11/09/2014, 12:45pm EST
By Brian Shacochis

The Marshfield Rams entered Friday night's game facing the daunting task of stopping the Red Hawks' tour de force offensive do-it-all star Brian Dunlap.

Only Walpole had managed to solve the riddle so far in a narrow 17-14 win over Natick that came down to the closing seconds. Otherwise, save for a close win over Acton-Boxboro early in the season, the rest of Natick's games were victories by comfortable margins (an average of 29.3 points per game to be exact).

Things didn't look promising for the Rams on the first play of the game, as a strong crosswind forced Gavin Admirand's kickoff to drift into the hands of Dunlap at the 10 yard line. 90 yards later, Dunlap was celebrating with teammates in the end zone as the Red Hawks took an immediate 6-0 lead.

Nevertheless, despite digging a hole for themselves just seconds into the game, the Rams displayed grit and fortitude in their response, dominating the rest of the half in all three phases of the game, and going on a 41-0 run to close the half and enter the locker room with a 41-6 lead. Speaking after the game (which finished as a 55-20 win for the Rams), Marshfield head coach Lou Silva called it the best half of football he'd ever been a part of.

"I would give one game ball to Chris Arouca, our offensive coordinator," Silva explained to the Boston Globe, "and the other to John Napoleone, our defensive coordinator. They're the ones that put together the game plan."

Natick head coach Mark Mortarelli was naturally disappointed with the result, but he praised Marshfield's performance to the MetroWest Daily News after the game.

"It's not about what we didn't do," Mortarelli explained. "It's about what Marshfield did. They played real fast and ran the football hard. We weren't able to tackle them, which allowed them to continue drives. They deserve all the credit in the world, they outplayed us tonight."

For the second straight week, Frank Catanoso compiled over 200 all-purpose yards, making him the star of Marshfield's playoff run so far. But as defenses begin shifting their focus to stopping Catanoso's outside threat, the Rams will certainly be happy to lean on their other offensive weapons instead as needed.

Marshfield quarterback Jack Masterson and running back Jacob Maher each scored a pair of rushing touchdowns in the first half, and Masterson connected with Danny Dalton on a touchdown pass in the opening half as well. Tailback Neal Parry added the final Rams touchdown to close out the second quarter.

Natick showed plenty of fight to open the second half, socring the first 14 points out of the locker room, but Masterson and Maher helped punctuate the game with the next two scores. Masterson scored his third rushing TD on a 17-yard play late in the third quarter, and he connected with Maher on a 51-yard scoring strike early in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

Marshfield's defensive and offensive units were so effective that the Rams dominated time of possession by a Grand Canyon-esque margin of 16:02. As a result, the defensive stats were lower than normal, but only because the defense did their work so efficiently (and because the offense held the ball for long stretches when they got it back).

Matt Benson led the Rams defense with 7 tackles on the night. Bob McCarthy added 6, closely followed by Fred Allen and Sean Burger, who each recorded 5 stops.

Gavin Admirand and Connor Kalwicz were noteworthy contributors on the defensive side of the ball as well, as both took on their biggest assignment of the year in defending Dunlap, a task they did successfully for the bulk of the game, only allowing him to break loose once the outcome was decidedly in hand.

Marshfield will advance to the south sectional finals next week when they travel to King Philip to play the Warriors on the road. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00, and all Super Fans should be on hand to support the team as they continue traveling the #RoadToGillette. Go Rams!

  

 

Tag(s): News  Varsity