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Sanborn shuts down Bishop Brady in big win

Saturday, September, 11 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

KINGSTON — What a difference a year makes.

After a winless 2009 campaign, Sanborn knows better what it's doing. Plays are run crisper and more cohesively, the defense is more aggressive and intuitive, and, most importantly, mistakes are shaken off and corrected rather than dwelled upon.

Against Division 5 finalist Bishop Brady yesterday, the Indians did it all. They cleaned up a penalty-riddled first half, owned the football for 34 of the 48-minute game while shutting down star running back Jamie Ewing, and making a huge red-zone stand late in the game for an impressive 21-14 victory.

The win snaps Sanborn's 13-game losing streak which included last week's setback to first-year Windham and four shutouts in the five preceding games. It was the second win since the program was revived three years ago after a 35-year hiatus.

"We're trying to change the whole culture here and the kids have bought into it," said second-year head coach Mike Drouin after his first win at Sanborn. "They're giving 110 percent."

Relentless junior Glenn Smith (82 yards, 2 TDs on 22 carries) and active linemen Brent Upton, Nick Carson and Seth Sherman sparked the offense. And the defense rode the hard-hitting of nose guard-linebacker Dan Perault (team-leading 6 tackles, one for a loss) to shackle Ewing to just 36 yards, 136 fewer than the week before in an 18-7 win against Fall Mountain.

And tying everything together was junior Dylan Spence, who seemed to be involved in every big play. His huge catches of 29 and 24 yards in traffic set up Sanborn's first two TDs. He dove to tip away a sure first-down pass at his own 25, getting Sanborn the ball back on downs, then finally picked off a Jon Conley toss after the Green Giants closed to within a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

The 24-yard catch put Sanborn on the Bishop Brady 1 with 2.3 seconds left in the first half and set up Smith's first TD. Spence explained simply, "When the ball is in the air, I get it."

And on the interception, Spence was assigned to 6-3 sophomore Graham Nyhan but read Conley and sprinted across the field to step in front of reciever Tom Arena and grab the ball.

"We were in cover 3 and they went backside and I came off my man to go to the play," he said.

Despite the dominance, Bishop Brady stayed in the game with big plays after Indian scores. Nyhan ran back the kickoff after a 13-yard Morris-to-Mike Rich TD toss 75 yards to the end zone.

And one play after Smith's second score, Conley connected with Arena for a 67-yard touchdown to trail, 21-14.

Mustering one last push, the Green Giants drove 61 yards behind Conley's throwing and running to the Indian 13. Defensive back Dylan Howard shut a huge hole and stopped Conley at the 7, senior Anthony Fiffick burst through the line for a four-yard sack and Sherman stopped Ewing at the 9.

On fourth down, Conley faked a toss to his right and fired a quick pass to a wide-open Arena. As he did all day, Perault reacted well and snagged Arena from behind a half-yard short of the first down marker to clinch the victory.

"Every day is a learning situation," Drouin said. "Everything else is falling into place, but the kids have to learn how to win. We dominated (yesterday) but almost let it slip away."

Still, the Indians held on vs. a team which won the Division 5 state title as recently as 2005 and 2006.

 What were they thinking?

After a strong goal-line stand, Bishop Brady had the ball at its own 1-yard line with 1:07 left in the first half in a 7-7 deadlock. But rather than savor the big stop and run out the clock, the Green Giants used two timeouts and went for it on fourth down from their own 25, failing as a pass slid through the receiver's hands with 13 seconds left.

Sanborn responded with Dylan Spence's leaping 24-yard grab leading to a 3-yard Glenn Smith touchdown run on the last play of the half.

When asked if he was surprised by the decision," Indian head coach Mike Drouin said, "A little bit." 

Additional stories:

• Sanborn shuts down Bishop Brady in big win