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Masconomet spoils Bp. Fenwick's football party

Sunday, September, 23 By Mike Grenier
Staff writer

PEABODY | The festive atmosphere was unmistakable at Bishop Fenwick's football game last night. The Crusaders played in the glow of permanent lights on their new artificial turf field before a big crowd on a perfect weather night.

What Bishop Fenwick didn't count on was Masconomet knocking its socks off.

In a matchup of early season unbeaten teams, sophomores Chris Splinter and Evan Bunker and junior T.C. Mannetta keyed a spectacular offensive performance and the underrated Masconomet defense "held" Bishop Fenwick's Bobby Tarr (25 carries, 150 yards, two touchdowns) under 200 yards for the first time in his last 11 games in a 35-14 Chieftains' rout.

"They were much better than us," Bishop Fenwick coach Dave Woods said after his team fell to 2-1. "They were better tonight, better tomorrow, better two weeks from now. They outplayed and were just better, hands down."

Masconomet proved to be a resilient, resourceful and hard-nosed road team that seemed intent on sticking the proverbial needle in the Bishop Fenwick balloon.

Tarr appeared to set the tone for the Crusaders when he scored a 25-yard touchdown on his first carry, but Masconomet commanded every aspect of the game the rest of the way, scoring 35 straight points before Tarr made it a little more respectable with a one-yard scoring run with 12 seconds left in the game.

"We love spoiling parties," said Masco's Mannetta, a junior captain who had a pair of touchdowns and finished with 99 yards on 19 carries.

Woods undoubtedly wishes he hadn't been such a prophet. He expressed concern earlier in the week about the perimeter speed of Splinter and Bunker and, sure enough, the two Masco sophomores burned the Crusaders.

Bunker turned a simple looking screen pass from Splinter into a 54-yard touchdown that gave Masconomet a 14-7 lead just before halftime. Bunker also chipped away at the Bishop Fenwick defense, getting 45 yards on 12 carries.

Meanwhile, Splinter was a huge difference maker. After getting off to a cool start in the passing game | 1 for 7 in the first half | he was 5 for 5 for 65 yards with a 5-yard scoring pass to Bunker in the second half. He also carried the ball six times for 94 yards and contributed perhaps the single biggest momentum play of the game when he sprinted 36 yards for a first down in a third-and-29 situation in the second quarter. Splinter eventually scored from five yards out and Nick Salvo kicked the extra point to make it 7-all.

The Chieftains led 14-7 at halftime and took the starch out of Bishop Fenwick with a 12-play, 73-yard scoring drive | Mannetta took it in from the 11 | that consumed nine minutes in the third quarter.

"We played a very talented team, but I think we wore them down," said Masco (3-0) coach Jim Pugh. "We played more people and I think it just took its toll on (Bishop Fenwick)."

Defensively, Masconomet devised a brilliant plan to limit Tarr, switching to a 6-man front, forcing Bishop Fenwick's offensive line to work extra hard to spring Tarr loose. Tarr earned every one of his 150 yards and his big play ability was nullified.

"Coach (Joe) Kulis is a genius," Masco's powerful looking defensive end, Teddy Reed, said of the assistant coach. "We kind of decided before gametime to go with a 6-2 (alignment) and we had our linebackers up close. (Tarr) broke through for that one touchdown early in the game, but we shut him down pretty well after that.

"They came out to kill us tonight," Reed added of Bishop Fenwick. "It was their first time playing under the lights on their new field. I remember how psyched we were when we played under the lights for the first time at Masco. We started off a little slow tonight but then we kind of found each other. We came back and took it to them."

Masco looks capable of taking it to a lot of teams for the rest of the season.