FOXBOROUGH - High school football fans who thought Everett would steamroll Dartmouth on the way to its second Super Bowl title in as many years were in for a surprise.
In a Division 1 final for the ages, the underdog Indians battled the juggernaut from the Greater Boston League to overtime before falling, 36-28, last night at Gillette Stadium.
"The people who stayed home missed a hell of a game. I hope they watched it on TV," Everett coach John DiBiaso said of the first Eastern Mass. Super Bowl to require overtime since 2003, when Acton-Boxboro beat Chelsmford, 18-12, in a Division 2 final.
Dartmouth quarterback Sean Sylvia and star running back Jordan Todman turned in all-star performances, helping the Indians score the highest point total against Everett this season. Sylvia completed 7 of 16 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns, and Todman ran for 199 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries and also caught a 52-yard TD pass.
Todman finished the season with 1,970 yards rushing and his career with 5,779, good for second all-time in the state behind Cedric Washington, who rushed for 6,688 for Holyoke from 1992-95.
"Todman was a real good player," said Everett's Isaac Johnson, who finished with 129 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. "I have a lot of respect for him."
Everett put the pressure on Dartmouth from the start, when it finished its first drive with a touchdown in just less than two minutes. But Dartmouth responded, as it would after the next three Everett touchdowns. Todman broke loose up the right sideline and left Everett defenders in the dust en route to a 71-yard touchdown run.
It was a drastically different scenario for the Crimson Tide, who pummeled its regular-season competition thoroughly and avoided last-second drama.
In the final Division 1 game of the year, however, Everett had to earn its title.
With 6:25 left in the fourth quarter, J.W. Forte gave Everett a 28-21 lead with a 1-yard run.
Dartmouth began the ensuing drive on its 31-yard line, and was helped by a roughing-the-passer penalty on second down after an incomplete pass. On second and 8 from his 48, Sylvia lined up in the shotgun, faked a handoff, then hit a wide open Todman on a slant over the middle for a 52-yard touchdown.
Everett won the coin toss in the overtime, and Johnson ran on the first two downs, putting the Crimson Tide at the 1-yard line before Forte ran in his second touchdown of the game. Forte also tallied the 2-point conversion to put Everett up by 8.
It was the last blow, and the only one from which Dartmouth couldn't recover. On the Indians' possession, Todman went for 1 yard on first down. Sylvia dropped back for two straight passes, and completed the second for a 3-yard gain. It was fourth down, and 6 yards stood between Dartmouth and another overtime. But Sylvia's final pass, a fade to Justin Mello deep in the end zone, was deflected by Johnson, and the Crimson Tide stormed the field, narrowly escaping Dartmouth's grasp in the last game of the season.
