Tri-County tops Pope John, gets to first Super Bowl

TAUNTON - As the seconds were ticking away in last night's 20-18 victory over Pope John, a sense of history enveloped the Tri-County players.

The Cougars are going where no Tri-County team has gone before: to the Super Bowl. The players suffered through three-win seasons the last two years, but an 8-2 regular season brought them to their first MIAA Division 4 playoff game. Tri-County will play Manchester Essex Saturday at Gillette Stadium.

"This is so big for this program. We've been dreaming of a moment like this and now we're going to Gillette," Tri-County coach Dan MacLean said.

Pope John started fast, methodically marching down the field on its first possession. The first 11 plays were rushes but a pair of losses forced a fourth-and-17 pass from the 24-yard line. Quarterback Sean Nalen dropped a touch pass over a Tri-County cornerback to Brian DiFrancesco for the score.

Nalen struck again on the Tigers' next drive, completing passes of 15, 15, and 27 yards to set up Justin Nascimento's 1-yard plunge. Both Tiger 2-point attempts failed, leaving them with a 12-0 lead with 8:35 left in the second quarter.

Tri-County had yet to have any success on offense when it received the ball with 4:03 left in the half. The struggles continued when delay-of-game and false-start penalties left the Cougars with a second and 21 on their 25. With his offensive line giving him time in the pocket, quarterback Lucas Mistler connected with Jared Gaumond at midfield over a pair of defenders and Gaumond sped down the left sideline for a 75-yard touchdown.

MacLean said all year his squad was a second-half team and it lived up to its billing. The Cougars went ahead with a 10-play drive that culminated with Mistler's 4-yard touchdown pass to Mike Foster. Mistler was able to escape the grasp of two defenders on the fourth-down pass to stake Tri-County to a 13-12 lead.

The Cougars dealt a devastating blow to Pope John with 4:28 remaining when Foster returned an interception 88 yards down the right sideline for a 20-12 advantage.

Pope John was knocking on the door with 40.2 seconds left after a 19-yard touchdown pass from running back Nascimento to DiFrancesco got the Tigers within 20-18. But linebacker Ben Hogan read the counter quickly. Hogan tripped up P.J. Robinson short of the goal line and the Cougars were assured of a trip to Gillette.

"I had position on him and wanted to make sure no one got to the outside," Hogan said

MacLean wanted to keep pounding the football in the second half. Mistler ran quarterback draws often in the half and had success as he rushed for 70 yards.

"Lucas got beat up a little bit in the first half but we kept at it in the second half," MacLean said.