Tag: Catholic Memorial
King Philip Falls To Catholic Memorial In D2 State Final
FOXBORO, Mass. – For the second straight year, the King Philip football team went toe-to-toe with the best team in Massachusetts on the biggest stage, but unfortunately for the Warriors, the result was the same.
Catholic Memorial blanked KP over the final two quarters and scored a pair of second half touchdowns to pull away for a 27-7 win to claim their second straight MIAA Division 2 state championship and extend their win streak to 29 straight games.
“It’s just a lot to hang with for a long time,” said King Philip head coach Brian Lee. “Our kids have such great heart and work so hard, and we’re gifted with great coaches, but in the end, it’s just too much to hang with for that long. We couldn’t bail out our defense enough. We couldn’t run the ball and get sustained drives. It was hard, it was tough, they are so fast and converge on the ball so it was just tough.”
The Warriors were in a good spot after 24 minutes of action, trailing by just a score at 14-7 going into the halftime break. The Knights scored on their opening drive – 10 plays for 80 yards, helped along by a 30-yard fumble recovery by an offensive lineman – and then again on their fourth series, punching in a touchdown with just 16 seconds left in the halftime.
KP bounced back after going three-and-out on its opening series. The defense, which played well for all four quarters, forced a turnover on downs on CM’s second drive to get the ball back. The Warriors marched 60 yards on 14 plays to find the end zone.
Rudy Gately (14 carries, 43 yards) converted a third down with a 6-yard carry running behind senior center Michael Murphy and right guard Logan Van Vaerenewyck, Will Astorino also moved the sticks with a 4-yard burst up the left behind Luke Danson and Sean King, and two plays later Gately got his biggest run of the game for 16 yards. A roughing the passer flag kept KP’s drive alive and moved the Warriors inside the 10-yard line.
The drive stalled inside the 5-yard line but KP elected to go for it and after not finding an open receiver, junior quarterback Tommy McLeish kept it himself and dove across the goalline for a 4-yard touchdown. Matthew Kelley’s extra point got KP within a point, down 8-7, with 9:49 left in the second quarter.
KP’s defense once again forced a turnover on downs but the CM defense stood tall and forced a punt from the Warriors. The Knights covered 54 yards in seven plays, going with play action on first down as freshman quarterback Peter Bourque found Maxwell Tucker for a 23-yard strike. The two-point attempt was picked off by KP sophomore Aiden Astorino, but couldn’t be returned.
Despite trailing 14-7 at half, the Warriors were set to receive the second half kickoff.
“Just keep doing what we were doing,” Lee said of the halftime discussion. “We were in it, we were hanging in there. We knew we needed to get a little more going. It was kind of the same thing last year, in the second half we get tired running guys on and off. They wear you down. They’ve got some humongous tackles, some serious players and it just wears you down.”
A strip sack on third down put an end to KP’s first drive of the second half and set CM up at the KP 40-yard line. Despite good field position, the CM offense couldn’t crack the Warriors’ defense and seniors Will Astorino and Carson Meier dropped CM running back Carson Harwood in the backfield for a turnover on downs.
KP was able to get a first down on the ensuing drive on a penalty but an interception by Tucker stopped the Warriors. That set up CM’s third scoring drive as JC Petrongolo hit Harwood for a 22-yard touchdown with just 1:22 left in the third quarter.
The Warriors had to punt on their first series of the final quarter and the Knights cashed in just four plays later. Meier had a tackle for a loss on first down and an incompletion on second down – due to pressure from Chris Sesay – set the Knights up for 3rd and 11 but Bourque hit Jaedn Skeete in stride down the left sideline for a 31-yard touchdown and a 27-7 lead with 10:36 left in the fourth quarter.
“These kids come out and know what they are going up against and they sat in there and fought,” Lee said. ”And they did it a bunch of times this year. We had some really big wins, had a few losses mixed in, but you have to be, and I am, so proud of what they’ve accomplished. No matter what you’re doing in life, you’re trying to maximize what you are and what you can be. Nobody wants to be average, and these guys didn’t want to be average. They didn’t want it to be a rebuilding year, and they came back to Gillette. I’m so proud of them.”
Kyle Abbott had a first down run and McLeish had a couple of QB sneaks on fourth down to keep the drive alive and move the chains. A 12-yard pass from McLeish to senior Will Laplante earned another first down and moved KP into the red zone. But the Warriors couldn’t finish the drive and turned it over on downs.
“For them to work and get back here, to have the kind of wins they did, to take the steps to put themselves back here and have another chance at this is very, very impressive,” Lee said. “When I look at what our ceiling was and how we smashed through it, and willed ourselves back here, that’s a tribute to the kids and their work.”
King Philip football finishes the season at 9-3.
Boys Basketball Photos: Franklin vs. CM
Franklin Comeback Denied by CM In Overtime
FRANKLIN, Mass. — Halfway through Tuesday night’s contest between Franklin and Catholic Memorial, things weren’t looking very good for the host Panthers.
At the end of the fourth quarter, Franklin nearly walked off with a crazy comeback win.
After all was said and done, Catholic Memorial emerged with an 81-78 win in overtime, withstanding a gutsy comeback effort from Franklin to advance to the Division 1 Round of 8.
Franklin trailed by as much as 19 points overall, and even trailed by a dozen with six minutes to go but was able to rally to force overtime.
“The pride I have for the guys is unbelievable,” said Franklin head coach CJ Neely. “I was just telling them in the locker room how proud I was, they made the whole town of Franklin proud. A lot of teams would have just gone away with the way things were going and the momentum they were carrying. We had nothing going in the first half, we weren’t making shots we normally make, some bunnies and some easy looks. We weren’t playing like ourselves.
“We talked about how there’s no 10-point shot, no single shot will save us. It was about trusting each other, it was going to be a slow grind and a marathon of a second half.”
The 21st-seeded Knights landed a couple of haymakers in the first half, hitting on seven three-pointers and shooting over 50% from the floor to establish a 43-28 edge on the road going into the halftime break.
But the Panthers still had plenty of fight left, scratching and clawing their way back into the contest over the final 16 minutes of regulation.
Franklin cut the deficit down to five on a pair of occasions in the third quarter, the latter on a late three from sophomore Henry Digiorgio (16 points, five rebounds) but as they did all night, CM answered as Brady McGowan drained one of his four three-pointers before the buzzer to put the Knights up 60-52.
While Franklin had essentially cut the halftime deficit in half, the Panthers still had work to do. CM pushed its advantage back to double-digits, up 64-52 after a pair of free throws from Matt St. Martin.
Sophomore Sean O’Leary (16 points, 10 rebounds) scored inside, and a couple of plays later sank a three to get Franklin within two possessions down 66-59. A stop led to two more from O’Leary, and another stop was followed by a traditional three-point play from junior Ben Harvey, who had a career night with 20 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists.
Franklin got a pair of stops and overcame a turnover to get a chance to tie it down two. Harvey hit one from the line but senior Sean Vinson (24 points, eight rebounds) hauled in the offensive board and found Digiorgio for a three from way deep, and suddenly the Panthers led for the first time since the opening minutes of the game, up 68-66 with 45.7 to go.
The Panthers continued their stellar second half defense with another stop and Harvey tacked on one of two from the line to extend Franklin’s lead to 69-66 with 39.5 seconds left. CM answered as St. Martin hit a layup and was rewarded with a free throw as well, which he sank to make it 69-69. Franklin’s shot just before the buzzer hit off the iron and stayed out.
Vinson and CM’s Peter Gellene traded baskets to start the extra period, and then Vinson took a feed from classmate Ryan Sullivan to give Franklin a 73-71 lead. Corey Dolison answered with a three for the Knights, and after back-to-back Franklin turnovers, Gellene drained a triple to make it 77-73 with 1:52 left.
“They made a lot of big shots, a lot of tough shots like those pull-up jumpers in the lane — those aren’t easy shots,” Neely said. “I thought we made them work for everything they got. They had an answer tonight. I thought our defense was so much better and more physical in the second half and that brought a different energy. Top to bottom, we were the Franklin team I expect us to be every night in the second half. Unfortunately against a team like that, you can’t dig big holes. Give our guys a ton of credit, they played a ton of minutes against the pace they play at. But we just weren’t able to put them away.”
Sophomore Andrew O’Neill and O’Leary each made free throws, and the latter drove to the rim for two more to make it 79-78 with 11.5 seconds left. Franklin was forced to foul and Dolison hit both. The Panthers went the length of the court and got a contested three off before the buzzer but it was off the mark.
A back-and-forth first quarter saw the visitors take a 17-12 lead, but the Knight really created separation with some successful three-point shooting. CM hit on five of their seven attempts from three-point territory for a 26-point second quarter.
Harvey, who had reached double-digits in scoring just once this season, became a reliable option on the offensive end for the Panthers. He scored half of his 20 points in the first half and his success playing in the post helped formulate Franklin’s point of attack in the second.
“When he’s making those layups inside and he’s posting up like that, he’s pretty difficult to stop because he’s so physical,” Neely said of Harvey. “They don’t have a lot of size, a couple of wider bodies but they were switching everything and we thought we could get Harvey and O’Leary and Vinson inside and I thought that played out pretty well in the second half. We just didn’t finish like we needed to if you want to win a game in the Sweet 16 of the Division 1 tournament.”
Franklin started the second half with a 12-5 run to get back into the game. O’Leary had a steal that led to a bucket, Vinson scored on a post move and then knocked down a straightaway three. Vinson had another triple, Digorigio had two, and Harvey scored three straight as the Panthers cut the deficit down to 48-43 halfway through the quarter.
Franklin boys basketball finishes the season 20-4.
Football Photos: King Philip vs. Catholic Memorial
Boys Hockey Photos: Franklin vs. Catholic Memorial
Franklin Skates Past Catholic Memorial Into South Final
BOURNE, Mass. – Just when it looked like everything was going right for the Panthers, it nearly went all wrong.
The 11th-seeded Panthers built a two-goal lead after a period and appeared to add another over halfway through the second period.
Just before Shane McCaffrey released his shot, a referee blew his whistle on a delayed penalty against seventh-seeded Catholic Memorial. While Franklin was heading onto the power play, it had a clear goal taken away.
And then the Knights used an aggressive penalty kill to score a shorthanded goal. And just minutes later, Catholic Memorial scored another shorthanded goal, and suddenly the game was 2-2 late in the second period.
But these Panthers have seen just about everything this season, and found ways to fight back. That’s just what they did, going back in front with less than a minute to go in the second period.
Franklin tacked on an insurance goal early in the third and scored an empty netter in the final minutes to secure an upset 5-2 win over Catholic Memorial in the D1 South Semifinals.
“It’s a credit to the boys in the locker room, how hard they fight, they never gave up,” said Franklin head coach Chris Spillane. “The seed doesn’t matter, it’s what you do on the ice that matters.”
The Panthers, who qualified for the state tournament by winning the Hockomock League’s Kelley-Rex division, will take on top-seeded Duxbury in the D1 South Final. Franklin previously knocked off #6 Falmouth and #3 Mansfield while the Dragons defeated #5 Barnstable, 3-2, in double overtime.
It was evident from the start that the Panthers were ready to play. Just over a minute in, Scott Elliott connected with a streaking Zac Falvey but his shot was turned aside.
At the midway point of the first, the Panthers went on their first power play but only managed one shot before getting whistled for an interference call to make it four-on-four. Franklin didn’t let its penalty kill the momentum.
Falvey found sophomore Joe LeBlanc at the blue line, and he shuffled the puck over to junior Tom Tasker. Tasker ripped a hard shot through traffic and past CM goalie Henry O’Brien, with Elliott providing a screen in front. Franklin led 1-0 with 6:27 left in the first.
Just two minutes later, the Panthers doubled their lead behind a terrific hustle play by senior CJ Spillane. Spillane blocked a shot at the blue line from one CM defensemen, beat the other CM defenseman in a foot race to the loose puck, and went in alone on a breakaway before depositing his wrist shot past O’Brien’s blocker for a 2-0 advantage with 4:11 to play in the first.
The Panthers nearly had a third in the final seconds of the period but O’Brien was able to get just enough of his pad onto a low shot from the blue line off the stick of Matt D’Errico. And on the rebound. Kyle Hedvig tossed a shot towards goal from the corner, and the puck bounced off the inside of O’Brien’s leg and out the other side.
Franklin goalie Ray Ivers (30 saves) had a strong game throughout, including a big save just a minute into the second. Franklin’s defensemen slipped allowing CM junior Owen Brady a chance in close but Ivers stood tall.
A minute later, the Knights had a two-on-one break, and Jack Curran elected to shoot but Ivers made the glove stop without giving up a rebound.
CM went on the power play with 8:54 left in the second but the Panthers got the kill. Falvey killed some time with a trip into the offensive zone, and Colin Hedvig had a clearance to kill off more time. The Panthers nearly grabbed a shorthanded goal when Spillane forced a turnover in the offensive zone, but O’Brien made a terrific glove save in close.
Kyle Hedvig and Joey Lizotte combined in the offensive zone, finding McCaffrey in front and he buried his chance but it was waved off in favor of a delayed penalty against CM. The Panthers couldn’t get a clean clear from the defensive zone, and Chris Rooney linked up with Will MacNeil to get the Knights on the board with 4:15 left in the second.
Franklin went on the power play with 3:42 left and cross check on CM was going to set up a 5-on-3 but the Panthers were whistled for a matching penalty to cancel the cross check out. The Knights got the offensive zone faceoff and Rooney made them pay, winning the faceoff then roofing his shot to make it 2-2 with 2:18 left in the second.
Back-to-back slashing calls within10 seconds gave Franklin a 5-on-3 opportunity for the final minute of the second. The Panthers took advantage as Tasker’s rebound fell in front of goal and Kyle Hedvig poked the loose back through the five-hole to put Franklin back up, 3-2, with 46 seconds left in the second.
“I think we found a team identity [down the stretch],” Spillane said. “For the past month, this is pretty much the team we’ve had. Where it was for the first month and a half, I couldn’t tell you but I’m glad we found it. It wasn’t pretty all the time tonight but it was effective. We don’t have a lot of pure goal scorers so we have to grind every inch of the ice and I thought we did that well minus the two shorthanded goals. Five on five, I thought we pretty much eliminated their quality opportunities, I thought we did a nice job.”
Franklin got an insurance goal just over three minutes into the third period. LeBlanc fired a shot from the blue line and Lizotte got just enough of his stick on the high shot to redirect it in as he skated past the front of the net.
“I just put my stick up, I saw it at the last second,” Lizotte said. “Luckily I’m so short it wasn’t a high stick.”
“Even that fourth goal, smallest kid on the team, he’s got that stick up by his shoulders, it’s a good goal,” Spillane said. “Anyone else on the team, it’s probably a high stick, so we’ll take it.”
Catholic Memorial had a chance to pull within one when it went on the power play a minute later but the Panthers didn’t surrender any big scoring chances and forced the Knights to take a penalty with 10 seconds left.
Franklin didn’t muster much up on the man advantage as O’Brien handled Franklin’s one good shot off the stick of Cam Cassella.
Ivers came up big again with 4:16 left, making a nice stop on Curran and then handling the rebound bid from Brady.
With the goalie pulled at 2:38, Colin Hedvig got a clearance for the Panthers, Falvey had a shot go just wide of the net and Ivers made a stop on Tommy Rooney.
After a battle in the neutral zone, McCaffrey came away with the puck and deposited a shot from distance to make it 5-2.
“One of the last games of the season we played LaSalle, we were down two goals and we came back and won it,” Lizotte explained. “That was a big confidence boost and every since then we’ve gone with it. I love this team. We’ve been through it all year, we’ve had a tough schedule from the start of the year. We got each other’s backs, and that’s what we did tonight. It felt really good.”
Franklin boys hockey (12-9-4) will square off with #1 Duxbury (20-4-0) on Sunday, back at Gallo Ice Arena, at 6:15.
Strong Second Half Lifts Franklin Over CM
By Joe Clark, HockomockSports.com Student Reporter
FRANKLIN, Mass. – When the teams headed into the lockerroom for the halftime break, it looked as if the game was headed to a classic Franklin-Catholic Memorial finish that would come down to the final minutes.
But instead, Franklin came out swinging in the third quarter, outscoring the Knights 28-15 in the frame en route to a 74-60 win for the Panthers.
The third quarter started out similar to the first half as a back and forth affair. CM’s Kani Glover (seven points) opened the scoring up for the Knights, but Franklin sophomore Chris Edgehill (eight points) quickly responded with a three for the Panthers.
Anthony Morales (ten points, eight rebounds) responded back with a layup off a feed from Jarrett Martin (nine points). Jack Rodgers (career-high 18 points, four rebounds, five assists) scored for Franklin down the other end, and Martin hit an athletic layup seconds later to put CM up 37-36 with 6:03 left in the third quarter.
But from the 6:03 mark to the end of the third, Franklin finished with a 23-7 run that included five points apiece from Paul Rudolph (seven points off the bench) and Alex Klowan (eight points and four rebounds off the bench). At the end of the quarter, Edgehill buried a three from just inside half court as time expired to give Franklin a 13-point cushion to end the quarter.
“Chris’ three was huge, you don’t see that coming, it definitely brings a huge momentum into the fourth quarter, the guys were excited in the huddle, so we were ready to go,” said Franklin head coach CJ Neely about Edgehill’s three at the end of the third.
Franklin got off to a fast start as they held a 15-11 edge at the end of the first quarter. Rodgers had eight of his 18 in the first frame, while Jalen Samuels (nine points, ten rebounds) chipped in four points.
Catholic Memorial came back with 20 points in the second quarter, behind six points off two threes from Will McDonnell and seven points from Jarron Flynn (team-high 15 points, five assists, five rebounds). Matt Elias (14 points including four threes, five rebounds) had six points off of two threes for Franklin in the quarter.
One of the keys for Franklin was their senior leadership, as 57 of their 74 points came from seniors, including 18 from Rodgers, 14 from Elias, and ten from Paul Mahon (who also contributed seven rebounds and four assists). In addition, Klowan and Rudolph brought a spark off the bench, as both played big roles in Franklin’s third-quarter run that helped them put the game away.
“They’ve definitely seen CM before, so they know the deal, I think when you don’t play them you don’t get that type of refresher, they’re one of only a few teams than can press you like that and bother you, and when you haven’t seen it you get guys all over you and you can a little nervous throwing the ball around, but they knew it was coming, and we woke up this morning expecting pressure, so now they know it’s coming, they’ve seen it before, so I think it was huge to have them, and then Jalen and Chris have been in a lot of games for us in big moments, so they might as well be seniors at this point,” Neely added about Franklin’s senior leadership.
Since this was an exclusion game for Franklin, it will not count toward their tournament record. The Panthers (2-1 Hockomock, 6-1 overall) are scheduled to take on Oliver Ames (4-2) in their first Kelley-Rex matchup Friday night in Easton.
The Knights (3-3) will face Malden Catholic on the road on Friday Night. Franklin beat Malden Catholic 62-38 in a recent tournament game.
Football Photos: Stoughton vs. Catholic Memorial
Black Knights Beat CM Behind Strong Defense
WEST ROXBURY, Mass. – Even though it’s been a nearly a decade, Stoughton senior lineman John Jolley vividly remembers the last time he found himself in the end zone scoring a touchdown.
He was just nine years old, playing Pop Warner.
Jolley isn’t likely to forget Stoughton’s 28-14 win on the road at Catholic Memorial anytime soon either.
On the last play of the first half, the 6’2, 220-pound defensive end was in the right place at the right time, coming up with an interception and returning it 72-yards for a pick six.
Not only was it a once in a lifetime play for a high school lineman, it was a play that completely changed the momentum, and possibly the outcome, of the game.
Stoughton’s defense held the Scarlet Knights to just 21 yards over the first three series of the game, but Catholic Memorial was in the midst of putting together its best drive of the half.
CM had rattled off eight plays, covering 61 yards to get into Stoughton territory with just five seconds to play. When the Scarlet Knights trotted out its kicking unit for a long field goal, Stoughton head coach Greg Burke used his first timeout of the half to ice the kicker.
With Stoughton up 7-0, first-year CM head coach Brent Williams elected to send his offense back out to try and tie the game on the final play.
Stoughton ended up getting pressure into the backfield and senior Jason Joseph made a huge play, hitting CM quarterback Nick Goffredo as he threw. The ball fluttered out of his hands and right to Jolley, who caught the ball and sprinted 72 yards for a touchdown.
“I saw someone come off the back side and hit the quarterback and the ball popped up and I just grabbed it and started running,” Jolley said. “I was looking back while running and saw my teammates so I knew I was going to score cause they’d throw good blocks.”
“Jolley was there, I don’t even know how far that run was,” said Stoughton head coach Greg Burke. “That’s pretty impressive for a big guy to get down there. It started with the sack and the ball popped up.”
And if you needed any more reassurance of just how big the play was, Stoughton was flagged on the play because its bench ran down the sideline in celebration of the big play.
And in a rare instance, Burke was fine was the penalty.
“That’s high school!” Burke beamed.
That interception was just one play in what was a very solid outing for the Black Knights’ defense. CM scored on its last two drives of the game, but its first five series ended in the following: fumble/turnover on downs, punt, punt, pick six and turnover on downs.
“It was pretty steamy out there, first half I thought we did real well on their run game,” Burke said. “They’re a big tough team, they probably didn’t think much of us. Their quarterback was our top priority, especially on scrambling. The end was a little hairy but we’ve got some tough kids. I was really happy, I thought we did pretty well when they came at us.
“This was a good 20-25% better than last week. We had a couple penalties, maybe. And we filled up some holes better inside. We got lit up a little bit inside and today [CM] didn’t get much inside.”
Stoughton’s offense also had a strong day, with four of its six drives resulting in double-digit plays run. Another was cut short by an interception, and its final drive of eight plays ended with the final seconds ticking off the block.
“That was it for us,” Burke said of the long drives. “If we can do that [consistently], we’re going to win a lot of games. We have to be able to run the ball but defenses have to be able to cover both. We can run our offense out of both sets. We can run pass plays or run plays from both sets so that helps us.”
The Black Knights were set to receive the opening kickoff but CM’s Will Fay blasted his kick off a Stoughton player and recovered the kick to give the Scarlet Knights the first possession. But on a fourth down in Stoughton territory, Alex Sjoquist came up with a strip sack with the ball bouncing out of bounds to give the Black Knights the ball.
Stoughton used a 12-play, 64-yard drive to take the lead. Highlighted by first-down runs of 10-yards and 12-yards by Justin Ly (16 carries, 77 yards), the Black Knights went up 7-0 on an eight-yard scamper by Alex Iverson on a counter play with just 14 seconds left in the first quarter.
The game stayed scoreless until Jolley’s pick six right before halftime. The bench penalty forced Stoughton back on the conversion and the two-point attempt was knocked away in the end zone.
“It was a huge momentum shift,” Jolley said. “If we got into the half tied and they’re getting the ball back, it’s a completely different came. But instead of 7-7, it was 13-0 and it was huge for us right at the end of the half.”
Stoughton’s defense started the second half as it did the first half, forcing a turnover on downs on CM’s first offensive possession. And its offense also had a repeat of the first half, taking its first possession to the end zone.
Ly’s game-long 18-yard run got the drive started early and eventually, Stoughton found itself on the CM 11-yard line. It looked as though Stoughton had a touchdown on fourth down, but an offensive offside call negated the score and pushed Stoughton back five yards.
Stoughton came up short of the end zone on the next play, but did get the ball to the 1-yard line on a pass from Evan Gibb (12/16, 137 yards, six carries, 30 yards) to Ruben Gonzalez (six catches, 79 yards) for a first down. Gibb then punched it in on a sneak and then found Sjoquist for the two-point conversion and a 21-0 lead with 5:18 left in the third quarter.
CM finally got on the board with under two minutes to play in the third, when Goffredo hit Khari Johnson in the flat. A bad snap on the extra point attempt resulted in a try for a two-point that failed.
The Black Knights did a nice job responding, putting together a 10-play, 58-yard drive that took up nearly six minutes (5:57) of the clock. Gibb’s completion of 23 yards to Iverson on a first down surprised the Scarlet Knights and was the longest play of the drive. Sjoquist punched it on an 8-yard toss with 6:41 to play.
The Scarlet Knights scored on its final drive of the game. Goffredo floated one to the left side of the end zone and Franklin native Jarrett Martin absolutely climbed a ladder to win a jump ball for a 24-yard touchdown. CM converted the two-point conversion.
Stoughton then ran eight plays to kill the final 3:55 and all of CM’s timeouts.
“Being 2-0 right now with practically 99% of these kids being new, I’m as thrilled as I’ve been while coaching,” Burke said.
Stoughton (2-0) opens Davenport division play on Friday night when it takes a trip to Jack Martinelli Field in Foxboro to take on the Warriors (1-1).