CANTON - Blue Hills had hoped to finish the regular season undefeated and head to the playoffs in Vin Hickey's final year at the helm, and yesterday was supposed to be the day the Warriors clinched that postseason berth.
But South Shore was not willing to play along.
After the Warriors (8-1, 3-1 Mayflower Large) drove 79 yards to score and pull within 2 with eight seconds remaining, South Shore's Frank Mogavero crashed through the line on the 2-point try, tackling quarterback Dave Shea before he could hand off the ball.
The win put South Shore (6-3, 2-1) in the driver's seat for the league crown, a remarkable turnaround for a team that went 0-5 in league play last year. The Vikings still have to play away games at Cape Cod Tech and Southeastern, but they will head to the playoffs if they win out. Blue Hills must win its remaining league game and root for a South Shore loss to get in.
"I got to hand it to these kids," South Shore coach Derek Mariani said. "There's some players over here. We haven't been consistent but they put it together at the right time to keep us alive."
After a scoreless first half, Blue Hills's Ryan Gearty ran back the second-half kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown, seemingly giving the Warriors the boost they needed after a sluggish opening.
But the Vikings answered on their next drive when Jayson Sullivan threw a jump ball from 33 yards out in the direction of Mogavero, who came down with the ball in the end zone to tie it.
"That was imperative [to score there]," Mariani said. "Especially for our offense because we've struggled."
After Blue Hills went three-and-out on its next possession, South Shore went ahead for good when Mogavero (116 yards, 11 carries) ran through a big hole on the left side of the line, going 59 yards untouched into the end zone with 3:26 remaining in the third quarter.
After sputtering for most of the second half, the Warriors offense finally began to move the ball.
Taking over on their 21 with 2:19 left and one timeout, Shea's first completion of the half moved the ball to the 45. After a fourth-and-5 conversion and a spike to stop the clock, Shea hit Tim Lear at the 10 and spiked the ball again with 19 seconds left. An incompletion ran the clock down to 14 seconds, and on third down Shea hit Jerry Nelson (25 carries, 143 yards) in the front of the end zone with eight ticks left. That's when, with the home crowd roaring, Mogavero stormed into the backfield.
