Potentially devastating

Senior-laden Boxers eye Super Bowl rematch

BROCKTON -- Ask Brockton football coach Peter Colombo about his team's potential and he quotes one of his favorite philosophers.

"Potential is all the stuff you haven't done yet," Colombo said with a smile.

Plato? Socrates? Aristotle?

"That's quoting the great Tyrone Pruitt," Colombo disclosed. Pruitt, who earned Globe All-Scholastic honors during his senior year at Brockton in 2002 after rushing for 1,516 yards and 19 touchdowns and recording more than 100 tackles on defense, is now a senior linebacker at Boston College.

"I read that line from him in an article once and I like it. That's pretty much where we are at with this team."

Potential is what the 2006 Boxers oozed. Coming off back-to-back Super Bowl seasons, Brockton graduated 29 seniors and pinned its hopes on a talented bunch of underclassmen that most pundits tagged as, "a year away."

Chalk it up as youthful naivety, these Boxers refused to listen. On the heels of an undefeated season, they brazenly predicted the winning streak would continue and that they wanted a three-peat.

Ranked No. 1 in the preseason last year, the Boxers fell to BC High, 27-20, on opening night.

"We got a little bit ahead of ourselves," said quarterback Vaughn Askew, one of four captains on this year's squad along with Darren Thellen, Louis Jacoubs, and Josh Previte.

"In the preseason we were talking about three-peats and winning streaks. We didn't take it one game at a time and really focus on what we needed to do."

The Boxers rebounded with back-to-back wins over Taunton and then-top-ranked Xaverian, but couldn't put a winning streak together the rest of the season. Despite a mere 5-5 regular-season record, Brockton won the Big 3 and advanced to the playoffs were it topped previously undefeated Dartmouth in the opening round.

A bit of the swagger came back, but the Boxers endured a 35-6 thrashing from Everett in the Division 1 Super Bowl.

"I think about that Everett loss everyday," said Jacoubs. "When you lose like that, it really stays with you. We have a lot of incentives this season, but that's the biggest one. We'd give anything to go back with what we know now and show Everett that we're a better team than that."

What has changed since last December? Brockton seems to be inching closer to that potential everyone talked about last fall. This senior-laden squad, which debuts at No. 2 on the Boston Globe's preseason top 20, dedicated itself in the offseason as the captains asked everyone to take their game up to the next level.

Askew says his decision making is better. Thellen is quicker. Jacoubs is stronger. Previte is smarter.

Now it's even harder for Brockton not to put the cart before the horse. Those statements they made last year about wanting another undefeated season and a Super Bowl title, they feel like they can actually back those up this year.

Oh sure, they'll be ready for each opponent, but this campaign has a final destination: The Division 1 Super Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 1 at Gillette Stadium. They've sent an invitation to Everett as well, hoping both teams can RSVP with their play on the gridiron.

"We pretty much all expect to get there," said Askew. "We all know we can't get ahead of ourselves, especially after what happened last year, but I'm telling you we want to get to Gillette. And we want Everett. That's pretty much all we talk about. We don't even talk about the playoffs, we want the Super Bowl and we want Everett."

Watch Brockton in action and you see all the reasons for the optimism. Offensively, it starts in the trenches, where Askew will be well protected by a mammoth offensive line that features all seniors except for left guard Henry Thevenin, a 6-foot-1, 275-pound junior.

Previte (6-1, 290) lines up at center with Brian Kelly (6-2, 250) at right guard, Andrew Jameson (6-3, 300) at right tackle, and Moises Samy (6-4, 290) shifting from tight end to left tackle.

"We've got size and experience up there," said Colombo. "A lot of people that the linemen for granted, but we're hoping they can give us a real physical presence up there."

Askew is a speedy signal-caller whose passing skills keep getting better. He'll try to get the ball into the hands of fellow burner Sharrief Hall, an electrifying split end, or wide receiver John Resende.

In the backfield, senior Josh Marsh will be the primary ball-carrier, but Colombo and Co., like what they've seen from junior Khalil Offley-James.

But ask Askew what jumps out to him on this team and he raves about the defense.

"Our defense has been knocking heads," said Askew, adding a little hop for enthusiasm on the final two words. "I'm serious, these guys are just flying around out there."

The Boxers have played with their puzzle pieces and like the versatility this group offers. Senior James Roukas (6-1, 225) should cause a ruckus as he bounces between defensive end and linebacker, where he'll run with a unit featuring Jacoubs (6-1, 230) Olivio Correira (6-1, 200), and Alex White (6-0, 200). Norman Hammond (6-0, 245) anchors the defensive line, along with tackle Brian Lindor.

Thellen returns at safety, while Derek Williams is back at corner. The Boxers don't want to utilize too many two-way players, but don't be surprised to see some of those offensive starters lend a hand on the defensive side of the ball.

"I really like how balanced we are on defense this year," said Thellen. "There's really not one star, everyone just does their job."

As usual, the schedule offers few breaks for Brockton. The Boxers trek back to BC High Friday night (they play there for a second straight year after renovations at Viola Stadium had the teams play back-to-back years in Brockton earlier this decade) and Colombo notes that he doesn't have too many fond memories from that field. There's matchups with two other Catholic Conference powers (Xaverian and St. John's Prep) in September, before trekking outside of Eastern Mass. to meet an improved Fitchburg squad and an always-challenging Pinkerton (N.H.) team.

Colombo doesn't care if it's undefeated season or another 5-5 campaign so long as his team improves each week and reaches that potential. He's honest when he says there's not much difference between the two, noting the close scores from 2005's undefeated season that included two overtime wins.

"Beating an undefeated Dartmouth team in the playoffs was certainly a feather in our cap last year," said Colombo. "I think it showed a little something about the 6-6 (record). We invested heavily in our juniors, but it was almost a necessity. We didn't have the seniors last year, so we put it on these guys."

Askew wonders if the team lacked the leadership necessary to truly make it a Super Bowl contender. That's part of the reason he and his cocaptains this year have taken such a vocal presence and are trying to push this year's squad. It's their senior season and if they are going to fulfill that potential, it has to happen now.

For Colombo, it all comes back to Pruitt.

"Why do colleges classify guys like Tyrone Pruitt as fifth-year seniors? Because even at that level the strides made each year are great," said Colombo, noting Pruitt red-shirted in 2003. "I think we've seen those strides in our guys from freshmen to sophomores, and sophomores to juniors. Now it's their senior year and they're only seniors once."

Chris Forsberg can be reached at cforsberg@boston.com