“It probably felt a little better this year,’’ said Greater New Bedford coach Chuck Allaire. “We started hearing some people saying that we might not belong in the Super Bowl with a 6-5 record, but we play in a tough league. We belong here and we played well.’’

The Bears finished 7-5, marking the first time since 1987 Greater New Bedford posted a record better than .500. “That was kind of like icing on the cake,’’ said Allaire.

Last night’s game had a combined eight fumbles (five by Greater Lawrence) and the matchup proved to be a close one.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Bears jumped out to a 14-0 lead. Senior running back Tristenn Clark ran 1 yard for a TD for the first score and senior Ambrose Hogan doubled the lead when he hauled in a 20-yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback Tyler Sylvia.

The Reggies weren’t done, though.

Junior quarterback Marcos Ortiz hooked up with junior Jonathan Montero on a play-action pass down the middle and Montero took it 55 yards for a touchdown. Ortiz ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 14-8.

Justyn Soares kicked a 30-yard field goal to push the Bears’ lead back to 17-8 heading into the fourth quarter. but Ortiz brought Greater Lawrence back again, running 1 yard for a TD with three minutes left to make it a 3-point game.

Greater Lawrence coach Tony Sarkis said that while the loss was tough, it was an honor to play in the game.

“Our kids have every reason to keep their heads up. We are 9-3 for a reason, and that’s because they played very tough and we are all proud of them,’’ he said.

“We win as a team, we lose as a team. We made some mistakes on both sides of the ball today.’’

“We played hard and took advantage of what they gave us,’’ said Clark, who celebrated his second Super Bowl victory as captain. “It’s the championship. We won it last year, we won it this year. Two years in a row - it really doesn’t get any better than this.’’