Tag: Super Bowl
Warriors Air It Out To Win First Super Bowl Title
FOXBORO, Mass. – With 1:45 remaining in Saturday night’s Div. 1A Super Bowl, King Philip faced third and eight from the Reading 38-yard-line. The Warriors went to their bread and butter and gained three yards to the 35. KP ran the play clock down and called timeout. There was confusion when they lined up, so the Warriors had to call their final timeout as well.
Knowing that five yards would seal the program’s first state title, King Philip put the ball in the hands of junior quarterback Brendan Lydon. He delivered. Lydon flipped a perfectly-timed pass to Tyler Jenesky (three catches, 43 yards) in the flat for a 16-yard gain and clinched the state championship at Gillette Stadium.
“If we had gotten a few more yards on third down then we probably would’ve gone with the run,” said senior John DeLuca. “We called in our go-to play, which is a flood right… Luckily, the Reading guys got mangled up with me when I was doing a 10-yard out. [Tyler] was wide open and able to seal the game.
“That was the best execution I’ve ever seen it and it came in the clutch.”
King Philip has been a run-first team under head coach Brian Lee. The Warriors are a team that likes to grind out wins with an old school style that flies in the face of the typical spread formation, pass-happy offense that have become commonplace in high school football.
But, in the biggest game in the program’s history, the Warriors turned all of that on its head, throwing 18 times against a Rockets defense that was piling numbers into the box. Lydon completed 13-18 passes for a career-high 256 yards and totaled three touchdowns (two through the air and one on the ground).
“We were getting stuffed at the beginning of the game so we decided to start throwing,” said Lydon, who was as cool during his interviews as he seemed to be in the pocket. “We just trusted the game plan, listened to the coaching staff and just went with the flow.”
DeLuca, who was the starting quarterback for the past two years before moving to receiver in the preseason, praised Lydon for his preparation for the Super Bowl and for being ready when his number was called.
“The past three weeks, since we beat Bridgewater-Raynham, he’s been practicing 110 percent,” DeLuca said. “He’s been coming out early and throwing with the receivers to get the timing right. This game means more than anything to him and he wanted to prove that he can do it. He came in, he knew what he had to do, he did it and he’s a winner.”
The Rockets knew the typical KP game plan was to keep the ball on the ground, but on the third possession of the first half Lydon surprised Reading with a play action pass to Giovanni Fernandez for the Warriors first big gain. That drive ended with a turnover on downs, but it showed the capability of KP’s passing attack.
On its next possession, KP took the lead with a touchdown pass from Lydon to Ethan Dunne. In the third quarter, Lydon used another play action fake to open up Brett Mazur downfield for a huge gain inside the Reading 10. That same combo hooked up again in the fourth quarter on a 69-yard touchdown that turned out to be the game-winner.
“Tonight was a changeup,” said Mazur, who finished with 131 yards receiving. “It was open, it was there, we knew that, and we just took advantage of it. We got the flats open, got everything open and it worked for us.”
When asked about the development of Lydon as quarterback, Mazur replied, “He’s grown so much. You can see him develop. You can see his throws, his vision have gotten much better. He’s making better decision since the beginning of the season and he’s really grown as a player.”
Lydon shrugged aside questions about whether or not he felt more comfortable in the offense now compared to his first start this season at North Attleboro.
He explained, “We always had the potential; we have the receivers. We just like to pound the rock because we have good running backs, but when it came down to it we had to throw the ball.”
DeLuca Sets Example for Super Bowl-Bound Warriors
When King Philip took the field on offense for the first time this fall at Community Field against North Attleboro in the season-opening non-league meeting, most were expecting No. 6 to run out and line up under center. Most were surprised when instead senior John DeLuca, who had been a two-year starter at quarterback, lined up at receiver.
The KP coaches had decided in the preseason, after watching junior Brendan Lydon at passing camps and at the annual Under Armour 7-on-7 regional passing competition at Oliver Ames, that the offense would be more dangerous and have more weapons to game plan for if DeLuca was used on the outside rather than at quarterback.
“When we came back from OA, we thought John needs to go out because he can catch and gives us more versatility on offense than having Brendan over there,” said KP coach Brian Lee earlier this week.
When asked what DeLuca’s reaction was to the news that Lydon would be the starter, Lee replied, “John’s just not your typical guy; he just wanted to win and if that made us better then that’s what he wanted to do.”
KP entered the season with question marks about how good it would be (for example, KP started the season at No. 6 in this site’s preseason Hock 5), but on Saturday evening the Warriors will line up to face Reading in the Div. 1A Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium. DeLuca’s team-first attitude in preseason set an example for the Warriors to follow.
“I also think it permeated our team and that’s why we’ve had success this year,” said Lee, an old school coach who appreciates a player putting the needs of the team before personal recognition. DeLuca is a character made from his coach’s mold.
“With social media and Twitter and everything else, it’s look at me and look what I’m doing,” Lee continued, “and now everyone thinks about their college career before they’re even done with their high school career. Getting a kid to be selfless like that, I think it says a lot about his character.”
The coaches in the Hockomock League agreed with that assessment by Lee and voted DeLuca as the MVP of the Kelley-Rex division after an unbeaten 5-0 league campaign. Although his statistics are not as gaudy as others in the division, the coaches recognized how much DeLuca means as a leader for the Warriors.
Lee explained, “You look at the bulk of his work over the last three years in the Hock and the coaches know who he is and the kind of player he is. He’s the kind of kid that no matter who you are, you want to coach kids like John.
“He’s a hustler, he’s an animal in the weight room, he’s an animal in the classroom, he never gets in trouble, and all that. He’s everything you want to coach.”
DeLuca enters Saturday’s game with 59 carries for 503 yards and five touchdowns and 14 receptions for 111 yards. On defense, he totaled 29-1/2 tackles, including 4-1/2 for loss, and added a pair of sacks. Ordinarily, these would not be the numbers associated with an MVP season, but DeLuca, who led the Warriors to a league title and berth in the Div. 2 South final as a sophomore quarterback, was also the punter, the holder, and the obvious leader on and off the field.
“When you look at his overall stats, you think well he didn’t rush for a tremendous amount but he always made a big play,” said Lee. “He was always making plays.
“He’s a great linebacker and he’ll probably play the defensive side of the ball in college. Punting and holding and doing everything that he does for us, playing receiver…he even plays defensive tackle for us in some of our sets.”
Versatility was the reason that DeLuca found himself at receiver to start the season and he has embraced the utility role. KP is not a team that puts the ball in the air often, so many times being a receiver means stepping in to block on the edge. He has jumped in at quarterback to run the ‘Wildcat’ sets and get the tough yards that he was known for when running the QB sneak the past two years.
When KP needs tough yards, the Warriors turn to DeLuca. When the defensive needs a stop, the Warriors count on DeLuca to get in the back field and make something happen.
“He’s meant everything for us,” said Lee, “He’s just a winner and he’s so happy all the time that it rubs off on everyone.
On Saturday, the Warriors will turn to DeLuca for one more MVP performance, as KP goes in search of its first state title. From a preseason of doubts to a potential championship, Lee praised his senior for helping lead the way.
Lee reflected, “We didn’t know what we were going to be, how the season was going to go, we just turned to John to do everything and he did it.”