Renzulli’s mad dash leads Fenwick past Newton South

PEABODY ? Chris Renzulli’s mad dash to the end zone with 4:45 left lifted the Bishop Fenwick High football team to a thrilling 15-12 win over non-league opponent Newton South, Friday night, at Bishop Fenwick.Dan Kennedy scored the other touchdown for the Crusaders, who evened their record at 1-1. For the Lions (0-1), who play in the tough Dual County League, Derek Russell threw a pair of 9-yard touchdown passes, to Willie Allen and Alec Rothman.”It was a great high school football game,” Fenwick coach David Woods said. “They played well; we played well. We made our extra points and they didn’t.”Trailing, 12-7, the Crusaders missed an opportunity from Newton South’s 5-yard line to take the lead with 7:34 left and turned the ball over when quarterback Pat Holleran twice lost his grip on a soggy football and was sacked at the Lions’ 18. A sack of Russell by Chris White and an illegal procedure penalty pushed the ball back to the 10, and forced Russell to kick from his own goal line into a steady wind.Renzulli fielded the kick right between the numbers on a full sprint and raced down the sideline into the end zone.”The kid (Renzulli) just made a good play,” Newton South coach Ted Dalicandro said. “It was a tough game to lose. We made too many mistakes and took too many penalties. It was a game we felt we could have won; should have won.”Holleran found Renzulli at the front right corner of the end zone for a 2-point conversion pass to put the Crusaders ahead by three points. The Lions failed to pick up a first down on their next series and turned the ball over at their own 17, but Fenwick couldn’t move the ball either and Newton South took over at its 18 with 2:06 left in the game.Out of a spread offense, Russell connected on a 26-yard hookup with Rothman, hit two more passes for short gains and then on fourth-and-five scrambled for 14 yards to the Crusaders’ 35. Two incompletions were followed by a short throw to Rothman, who was tackled at the Fenwick 29 as the game clock expired.”They didn’t really run anything we didn’t expect,” Woods said. “They have a good mobile quarterback who can make plays. Their best player (running back Kwame Francis-John) didn’t play (due to an injured ankle), and I’m sure that made them do things a little differently.”Fenwick scored first, on a 60-yard drive that lasted 6:14 and consisted of 11 consecutive running plays, the last of which was a 5-yard rush by Kennedy over left tackle. Kyle White’s point after kick was good and the Crusaders led, 7-0, with 4:41 left in the second quarter.Newton South answered on its next drive, a 59-yard, 8-play march that included a 33-yard run from Tevin Osborne and concluded with a 9-yard pass from Russell to Allen just inside the pylon in the right front corner of the end zone.The snap on the point after kick try was mishandled and Osborne was brought down short of the goal line as Fenwick preserved a 7-6 lead with 28 seconds left in the first half.The Lions scored in the final minute of the third quarter on a similar pass from Russell, this time to Rothman, who made a nice catch just inside the pylon. The drive went 83 yards in eight plays and was aided by a personal foul penalty on Fenwick at the end of an 18-yard run by Osborne.Newton South’s first try for two points was nullified by an offensive interference infraction, and the second effort resulted in an incomplete pass.