Blue Hills is still at summit
CANTON - Another week, another undefeated team knocked off by Blue Hills.
This time it was Southeastern, which fell, 14-8, to the Warriors yesterday on a dreary, rainy afternoon.
For the third straight game, Blue Hills beat an undefeated team from the Mayflower League. The Warriors (7-0) knocked off Martha's Vineyard, 8-6, last week, and West Bridgewater, 14-13, two weeks ago.
"It feels real good," said Blue Hills coach Vin Hickey. "We're hanging in there. The problem is we can't be this close all the time or something is going to happen. The little brown hair I have here is going to go."
Jerry Nelson, third in Division 3A scoring, was in the Warrior backfield after missing the West Bridgewater game and all but seven plays against Martha's Vineyard. Walking with a hitch in his step after each play thanks to a left ankle injury suffered three weeks ago, the bruising, 190-pound back repeatedly punched his way through the middle, accumulating 103 yards.
"He's still hobbling a bit, but he's been a key factor. We needed to play him but we were hoping that we didn't," Hickey said. "All these other kids are 150 pounds. We've got midgets back there except for him. He's a man."
The Warriors got on the board in the first quarter via a rare passing touchdown. On fourth and 7 from the Hawk 17, quarterback Dave Shea was hit as he threw, but his rainbow pass landed perfectly over receiver Kevin Murphy's right shoulder, hitting him in stride in the end zone to give Blue Hills a 6-0 lead.
After Southeastern failed to convert on fourth and 5 on the Blue Hills 8, the Warriors took over and methodically ran the ball down the field. Fourteen plays later, Nelson took the ball inside the left tackle, ran through an arm-tackle, and found the end zone from 11 yards out. The senior captain then ran for the conversion to give his team a 14-0 lead heading into halftime.
Southeastern scored early in the fourth quarter, a long drive capped by a 1-yard keeper by Vincent Cardona. The Hawks added a 2-point conversion on Rafael Marmolejos's run, making the score 14-8 with 9:08 remaining.
That's when the Blue Hills defense took over. While the offense struggled, the defense refused to let Southeastern drive for the tying score, stopping both fourth-quarter Hawk drives in four plays. Blue Hills has allowed just 26 points this season.
Nelson took over from there. With just more than two minutes left, Blue Hills took possession and went with a steady diet of Nelson up the middle. The running back picked up two first downs to run out the clock.
"I want to thank my trainer Jaime," Nelson said. "He taped [my ankle] up real good today. It just felt good."
The muddy, wet conditions played to the advantage of Blue Hills, which rarely throws.
"This is like playing rugby on offense, we're just submarining, we're crabbing," Hickey said. "You can't read or anything, you just have to commit."
If not for a couple of untimely dropped passes, the Hawks (6-1) might still be undefeated.
"Anything could have happened," Hickey said. "If they caught a couple of passes . . . that's part of luck. We've had it the last three weeks, I hope it continues."
At 7-0, maybe it's time to call it something other than luck.
