Bishop Fenwick defense steps up in win over Feehan

ATTLEBORO — After a first half where little went wrong on offense, the Bishop Fenwick offense struggled to find consistency in the second half of Thursday night’s game at Bishop Feehan.

No matter. The Fenwick defense was more than up to the task to make sure the early lead held up.

Fenwick found the end zone three times in the first half, and the defense recovered a fumble and intercepted two passes in a 21-7 win over Feehan. The victory improves Fenwick to 3-0 on the season, while the hosts drop to 1-2.

“We came out flying on offense early,” Fenwick coach Dave Woods said. “The wind and the short fields helped a lot. The second half we couldn’t (get much going) … couple dropped balls here, couple missed assignments there, and we stalled a little. The defense was great all night. … Our defense played phenomenal tonight. It was good to see them play that well.”

It looked like a rout early on. The Crusaders started their first drive at the Feehan 34-yard line, and only took five plays to find the end zone with a 3-yard rush from Tucker Destino, who finished with 89 yards on 19 carries.

The next Feehan drive did not go very far, and Fenwick cashed in again, this time on a drive that started at the Shamrocks’ 40. The Crusaders scored on a perfectly-executed tunnel screen from quarterback Chrys Wilson to Jake Connolly, who made a 20-yard catch-and-run for the touchdown. It was a play that worked several times.

“The whole week in practice we knew that just because our previous games we were going deep ball, deep ball over and over again, (that the Feehan defensive backs) were going to be backing off, playing back a little bit,” Connolly said. “So that tunnel screen we knew was going to be open right from the jump.”

On the ensuing Feehan possession, Fenwick’s Steven Bua made an interception and returned it down to the Shamrocks’ 4. Three plays later, Connolly was in the end zone from a yard out and the Crusaders were up 21-0 less than a minute into the second quarter.

From there, Feehan battled well to stay in it, as quarterback Aidan Crump hit Robert Pombriant on a pretty, 28-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-8.

But that’s all Fenwick allowed, and the Crusaders closed out the final 7:28 with their power run game.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fw6iG5