NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. – North Attleboro opened the Division 3 Southwest sectional with a dominating 35-7 victory over Walpole on Friday night at Community Field. Quarterback James Kummer and running back Jack Blasé accounted for all five touchdowns, as the North first team offense scored on five of its six possessions.
The game was changed early by turnovers. Senior linebacker Kyle Rodriguez had a pair of fumble recoveries on the first two Walpole possessions. The second happened on the one-yard-line as he ripped the ball out of the hands of Rebels running back Steven Cuqua. North took over possession and marched 99 yards for a score that made it 14-0.
After the game, Rodriguez called that play a game changer. He remarked, “Down on the one-yard-line, if they score then it changes the game. He had the ball in front of him a little bit and I just knew that I had to make a play.”
That drive was capped by a 22-yard shovel pass from Kummer to Blasé. Both players also ran for two touchdowns each, as North ground out 286 rushing yards on the night. Chris Hunter led the way with 13 carries for 118 yards.
The Rebels got on the board late in the fourth quarter after North head coach Don Johnson had substituted in his second string defense.
North offense is starting to click
North struggled against the powerhouse teams in the Kelley-Rex (Mansfield, King Philip, and Attleboro) because the offensive line struggled to give Kummer the time to throw and to open up holes for the ground game. With only one returning starter on the line, senior captain Evan Sweeney who was injured for two of the losses, it was going to take time to build up experience, but Johnson believes that the Rocketeers are getting there.
He explained, “We knew it was going to take time…We finally got all our guys back and we’ve just continued to get better every week; it really showed tonight.”
This is not the explosive, score on any play, offense of last year when Alex Jette was breaking 80-yard runs at will, but is more of a throwback to the Rocketeers grind-it-out traditions. The Rocketeers had scoring drives of 99, 72, and 70 yards, which eats up time of possession and wears down opponents.
“That’s what we didn’t have early this year against those big teams,” said Johnson. “The past couple of weeks, we’ve put together some pretty good drives like that, which takes the heat off the defense.”
With Kummer, Blasé, Hunter, and Mike Lambert, North has plenty of weapons in the backfield (even without injured captain Matt D’Attilio) and now the offensive line is starting to open huge running lanes for the backs. The Rebels were overpowered from the start and only presented token opposition on defense, but it was still an impressive display by the guys up front.
Front seven has gone from question mark to strength
Rodriguez commented, “In the film, they were running all over teams; we knew they had a good offense. We knew that we had to have out best defensive game of the year and we did today.”
It was not just on offense that North had question marks about its size and strength up front. In the season preview, Johnson noted that his team had talent and depth in the secondary (seniors Blasé, Lambert, and Jake Lang in particular) but he had concerns about the front seven. Although the Rocketeers are still not manhandling teams with their defensive line, North has taken advantage of a speedy and aggressive crop of linebackers.
Hunter, Rodriguez, Anthony Ranieri, and Ellis Badger have had their names called on almost every play. The linebackers swarm around the line of scrimmage and have been successful at getting into the backfield and pressuring the quarterback. Rodriguez was the star on Friday night with the fumble recoveries, but he had plenty of support trying to stop the high-powered Walpole offense. Although the line doesn’t overwhlem opponents, it has also been making plays with Dan Kummer and Maxwell Kroll particularly prominent in recent games.
Johnson praised the junior class for its development this season and Rodriguez wishes that the team had a second chance at Mansfield or KP (it plays Attleboro again on Thanksgiving) to show how far the team has come.
OA will be a much tougher test
Walpole head coach Barry Greener is not a man who tries to hide how he is feeling. He was very blunt about what he thought of his team after the loss. He admitted, “We had a key fumble over there and a key fumble down there, but it was irrelevant. They beat us every which way to Sunday. They just took it to us; we just had no answers.”
Greener continued, “We looked good in practice all week. They didn’t run anything that we didn’t work on; we’re just not very tough on defense. If our offense isn’t rolling, we have serious issues.”
From the start, North appeared stronger and more up for the physical challenge of the playoffs than did the Rebels. That will not be the case next week as the Rocketeers travel to Muscato Stadium for the league’s first crossover game of the season. Oliver Ames is 8-0 and boasts a very strong defense with a big, quick defensive line. Expect the Tigers to cause far more problems for North than did Walpole.
That does work both ways though, as North has faced much tougher opposition in recent weeks than did OA. There is no easy game in the Kelley-Rex division, plus North took on BC High in the opener, while OA has had Milford, Canton, Sharon, and Medfield in its last four games. North feels battle-tested and ready, but the Tigers are talented and tough so it’s definitely one to look forward to.
Josh Perry can be contacted at JoshPerry@hockomocksports.com and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.
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