Farrell, Raiders sink Spaulding
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PHOTO BY JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR |
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By Anna Grearson TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: October 4, 2009
BARRE – Things did not look good for the Spaulding football team when senior running back Cameron Cummings went down with a knee injury in warm-ups prior to Saturday's game against U-32.
Things looked even worse when U-32's Logan Farrell ran back the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.
The Raiders maintained such momentum and improved to 4-1 with a 27-18 win over the Crimson Tide (1-4) in a nonleague game at A.G. Pendo Field.
"Honestly the last couple of games we didn't think the defense had been playing all that aggressive," U-32 coach Mike Law said. "Today we maybe were a little too aggressive at times, but we're going into the meat of our schedule and we can't be timid. We can't stand around and let teams do things to us. I was pleased."
Farrell dominated, rushing for 254 yards and two touchdowns, and added a third touchdown in the air – a 19-yard reception by John Helme. He completed 2-of-8 passes for 33 yards and threw one interception. Jesse Burke rushed for 109 yards and a touchdown for the Raiders.
Brandon Cadorette led the Spaulding rushing game with 80 yards and Joey Woodruff grounded out 35 more. Tide quarterback Zach Dessureau completed 9-of-27 passes for 115 yards and rushed for 22 more.
"It is what it is," Spaulding coach Erik Anderson said. "U-32 played a good game. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot too many times to where we couldn't recover. I don't know what we need to do from here. We're banged up, and that's one thing that's been a concern from the beginning, but we're capable of good football. We're in every game we play."
In addition to the loss of Cummings, Spaulding was also without junior running back/linebacker Anthony McArdle, while U-32 was without senior running back/defensive back Elias LaCount, who injured his elbow last week in Colchester.
"Without having Elias, Jesse Burke does a great job," Law said. "We're thinking we may get Elias back by the end of the season which will make us a much better team. Right now with Nick Johnson, a sophomore, our youth is serving us quite well. We've got a nice mix of young players and older guys. Today they made it work."
After Farrell took 17 seconds to put up the game's first points, the Spaulding offense put together a five-play drive that resulted in a punt deep into the U-32 territory. Three plays later, a safety put Spaulding on the board, down 7-2.
Later in the quarter, U-32 went no-huddle for two of its three plays, the third resulting in a third-down 68-yard touchdown run by Burke. With Jacob Beling's good point-after attempt, the Raiders took a 14-2 lead with 3:43 left.
Spaulding held onto the ball for the first half of the second quarter on a 13-play drive, including three completions by Dessureau for 36 yards that brought the Tide all the way down to the 7-yard line. U-32 recovered an untimely fumble but could not advance more than 3 yards up the field.
Spaulding returned the favor, blocking the ensuing punt and the Tide's Dustin Barnett recovered a Raider fumble in the Spaulding end zone. A successful two-point conversion by Dessureau and Shane Hart cut the gap to 14-10 with 5:20 left in the first half.
Farrell took the wind out of Spaulding's sails immediately, however, and returned the ensuing kickoff another 80 yards for his fourth kick return for a touchdown of the season to give U-32 a 20-10 lead at the half.
"The guys do a great job blocking and he's got some speed," Law said of Farrell. "Most people don't know he can run that fast. He's come a long way since last year when I threw him out as a varsity quarterback. Now he's a junior and he's learning and making much better decisions. The team knows it."
U-32 tipped a punt by Spaulding's Sam Fuller early in the third to give the Raiders excellent field position but fumbled the ball three plays later. Spaulding gave the ball right back as Dessureau was picked off on the first play. On the ensuing drive, Farrell completed a 19-yard pass to Helme on third-and-9 to make it 27-10, Raiders, with 7:36 left in the third quarter.
Spaulding went three-and-out on its next drive while U-32 worked the clock with a 14-play drive to close the quarter.
"I was glad with the way they responded and came out in the second half and took the ball down the field and scored," Law said. "In the third and fourth quarters I was more intent on running out the clock and the kids did a pretty good job of that. We had some troubles with their blitzes, and a credit to them, they broke up some plays in the backfield for us. But on this field, with what we did, I'll take it."
On fourth down midway through the fourth, Dessureau lost his footing, spun and fired to complete a 29-yard pass to Ducey, setting up the Tide's only offensive touchdown, a 9-yard completion to Cadorette. Another two-point conversion, this time between Dessureau and Fuller, accounted for the 27-18 final with 6:55 left in the final frame.
"There's a definitely a lot of good flashes and a number of players who are giving 100 percent, but there are others who are not bringing their A game to the table," Anderson said. "That's something that I've been preaching since Day 1 after Mount Anthony (a 28-0 season-opening loss). We try to set them up the best we can and they just have to learn. Maybe it's a little too much adversity for them. A lot of them are playing a good game, we just have got to get everybody else on board. It's a team game. It's not certain individuals doing good things, it's got to be everybody doing good things."
Spaulding travels to Brattleboro on Friday night while U-32 hosts North Country that same night.
"Their option is going to be tough for us," Law said of North Country, who scored 69 points on Oxbow Friday. "We don't see a lot of option, and they do it very well."
"We've got to gather ourselves together and be able to do something with the rest of our season," Anderson said.