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East Boston's Tyrone Figueroa couldn't elude Madison Park's Jakeem Cobb, who dives in for the tackle on this play. (MICHAEL DWYER/FOR THE GLOBE) |
East Boston 22, Madison Park 8
With less than a minute left in the first half and the ball on its 17, Madison Park was unwilling to settle for an 8-0 halftime deficit and didn't run out the clock.
The decision helped cost the Cardinals the Boston North title.
After an incompletion on first down, quarterback Jakeem Cobb dropped back and threw a high, arcing pass down the right sideline well beyond the reach of any receivers. East Boston safety Tyrone Figueroa waited for the ball at the 46 and ran the interception back to the Madison Park 6. With 15 seconds left in the half, Figueroa ran 6 yards up the middle for a touchdown to double the lead and the Jets (9-0, 4-0) went on to post a 22-8 win, clinching the North title and a playoff berth.
"That interception right before the half got us over the hump," East Boston coach John Sousa said. "It set the tone. That was a big interception."
"I knew he was going to throw it because I was cheating back," Figueroa said. "He had seen me go for the slant, so I knew he was going to throw it [deep], I just didn't know it would be like that."
The interception capped a big half for the senior running back/safety, who ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
Playing without running mate Frank Brown (broken thumb), Figueroa finished with 113 rushing yards, an interception, and a fumble recovery.
"He's a player," Madison Park coach Roosevelt Robinson said. "He's been a star for that program."
East Boston and Figueroa came out running on all cylinders. After a Madison Park offside penalty and two rushes moved the ball into Cardinals territory, Figueroa bounced off two Madison Park defenders before heading to the right sideline, outrunning the rest of the defense en route to a 47-yard touchdown.
"The play was originally to the left, but the line got so big of a pull that I could have picked anywhere," Figueroa said. "I saw the outside so I just ran there. I got a key block from [wide receiver] Anthony Nichols."
East Boston added another touchdown on its first possession of the second half when Ricky Rickerson punched the ball in from a yard out, capping a 37-yard drive after a failed fourth-down conversion by the Cardinals. Madison Park (6-2, 4-1) scored in the fourth quarter on Davaughn Goss's 13-yard run with 50 seconds left.
"East Boston came out to play, and we were flat," Robinson said. "My team did not come out to play. We didn't block well, we didn't tackle well, and those are key ingredients to losing a game."
Madison Park outgained the Jets, but good field position was the difference for East Boston.
The title, East Boston's fourth in five years, was especially sweet for Sousa and his team this time around, considering the Jets' title hopes looked bleak early in the season. East Boston lost to Charlestown, 28-16, Sept. 28, but the Townies were forced to forfeit the game for using an ineligible player.
Riding the momentum, the Jets ran through the rest of their schedule undefeated and now await the winner of the Mayflower Large in the first round of the playoffs.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
