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Bishop Fenwick Crusaders Football '07

Thu, Nov 22, 2007 10:00 AM @ Bishop Fenwick
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Austin Prep 0 8 0 8 16
Bishop Fenwick 0 6 14 8 28
Austin Prep 16, Bishop Fenwick 28. » Matthew Viglianti, Staff PhotographerMore photos

Tarr, Fenwick end season in style by beating Austin Prep

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Thursday, November, 22 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

PEABODY | It hardly seems fair that Bobby Tarr's high school football career quietly came to an end here at Donaldson Field yesterday morning.

A parade was not held, banners were not hung, and Tarr | Bishop Fenwick's record-breaking running back | was not carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders after helping the Crusaders close out the season with a 28-16 victory over Austin Prep.

Then again, maybe Tarr liked it this way.

Never one to pound his chest, celebrate touchdowns with dance moves or brag about his lethal combination of speed and power, Tarr made the exceptional seem ordinary and the unimaginable seem attainable.

Tarr's 131 yards and two touchdowns on Thanksgiving Day was actually viewed as a "bad" game.

In reality, Tarr set the bar so high by averaging nearly 230 yards and three touchdowns per game over the past two seasons that numbers like 131 yards and two touchdowns became, well, disappointing.

He temporarily moved into second place on Massachusetts' career rushing list with a 7-yard gain in the second quarter, good for a first down. He finished his career with 5,598 yards, 1,090 yards behind former Boston College standout Cedric Washington and 116 ahead of Dartmouth's Jordan Todman. Todman will get an opportunity to move past Tarr because his team is moving on to the Division 1 playoffs.

The beauty of Tarr's career wearing the Brown & Gold was two-fold.

First, he made rushing for 200 yards in a game look simple. Secondly, he never cared about the numbers that showed up next to his name in the boxscore. All that mattered to him was if his team outscored its opponent.

"It's more than the numbers," Fenwick coach David Woods said. "I'm sure someday we'll look back on it and say, 'Oh my God.' But it's more about the type of person he is.

"We're going to miss him a lot because he's just the nicest kid. He loves his teammates and he'd do anything for them. Those are the kind of players you need on a team."

Tarr's Thanksgiving performance was enough to share the Sal Tripoli Award (for the game's Most Valuable Player) with junior Dan Kennedy, who ran for 50 yards and a touchdown and returned an interception 60 yards for another score. Kennedy's rushing touchdown and his two interceptions | one of which was a pretty one-handed grab in front of the Austin Prep bench | brought more life to Tarr's face than anything he accomplished over the last two years.

"Did you see the one that he got with one hand? That was unreal," Tarr said behind a wide smile. "I didn't know he had it in him. He looked like (Detroit Lions receiver) Calvin Johnson or something."

The attention Tarr grabbed could have been a distraction to his teammates or created animosity because of his headline-stealing games.

He never made it seem like he was interested in personal accomplishments, however, and that, in turn, helped Tarr's records become team goals.

"It was a good indication of our talent and work on and off the field," senior offensive lineman Dan White said. Kennedy credited his space to run yesterday on the fact that Austin Prep | who were burned by Tarr to the tune of 372 rushing yards last Thanksgiving | was focused on stopping Fenwick's superstar runner.

"Bobby is an unbelievable running back and you have to watch him (as a team defense)," Kennedy said. "I come out the backside (from the Wing-T) and there's no one there."

When things weren't going well for the Crusaders this season, many times it was because the team leaned so heavily on Tarr.

In the first half yesterday, Tarr was held to 67 yards and running room was limited because holes just weren't opening. "Bobby was running the ball and breaking tackles, but we just weren't blocking at all," Woods said. "You get a kid as talented as Bobby and sometimes you get in the habit of just barely hitting someone and then watching him run. We were doing a lot of watching in the first half."

Tarr, who is currently undecided on his college plans, had a more typical (for him) third quarter when he rushed for 64 yards and two touchdowns.

But the final carry of his career will go down as a no-gain on fourth down inside the Austin Prep 5-yard line. He won't lose any sleep over it.

Dealing with life after Fenwick football will be more difficult.

"I'm not sure it's really hit me yet, but when it does it's going to hit me hard," Tarr said. "I just love all my teammates."

Bobby Tarr year-by-year Year Att. Yards Avg. TDs Pts. 2005 78 541 6.9 4 30 2006 259 2,513 9.66 34 210

2007 256 2,544 9.9 31 192

TOTALS 593 5,598 9.44 69 432

Massachusetts all-time leading rushers

Cedric Washington, Holyoke 1992-95 6,688 Bobby Tarr, Bishop Fenwick 2005-07 5,598 Julius Walker, Springfield Comm. 1998-2001 5,486 Jordan Todman, Dartmouth 2004-07 5,482* Peter Harris, Brockton 1993-96 5,270

*Todman has at least one game remaining as Dartmouth has advanced to the Division 1 playoffs.

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