St. Mary’s 40, Tech 6: Dominant end to one of Spartans’ greatest seasons

LYNN – It was a dominant end to one of the best season’s ever put forth by a St. Mary’s football team.On a frigid Thanksgiving Eve at Manning Field, the Spartans completed a 10-1 campaign with a 40-6 thrashing of Lynn Tech which saw Ryan Barrows, Todd Collier and Nick Day all rush for over 100 yards for St. Mary’s.Click here for a photo gallery of this game”This entire group of kids was great,” St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin said. “We didn’t want the season to end. I told the kids before the game that I believe in my heart that we’re the best team in the (Catholic Central) League.”Day led the Spartan attack on Wednesday with three touchdowns and 103 yards. Barrows added 122 yards and a touchdown while Collier had 109 yards and a score. The Spartan defense, meanwhile, put the shackles on Tech all game long before Kennedy Gomes’ 26-yard scramble on the game’s final play.”All the backs ran hard and our defense was outstanding,” Durgin said. “I think the first unit gave up less than a touchdown a game all year.”The Tigers (1-10) opened the game with an onside kick that they recovered at midfield. Pedro Martinez then raced 33 yards to the St. Mary’s 17 to give Tech the game’s first red zone trip.A run and three incomplete passes later, St. Mary’s had held at its 15 to turn all the momentum back to the Spartan sideline.”We got the onside kick and moved the ball but we couldn’t get anything out of it,” Tech coach James Runner said. “That hurt us.”It took the Spartans a little over two minutes and seven plays to drive the 85 yards after the stop thanks to the running of its triumvirate of tailbacks. Collier did the honor of scoring the game’s first points with a nifty 23-yard run to daylight and an 8-0 lead after a Day conversion rush.A Tiger punt on the next possession gave the ball to St. Mary’s at its 38. Six plays later, Day was in the end zone for the first time and the Spartans led 16-0 after the first quarter following a Barrows conversion run.”Our line has been outstanding all year,” Durgin said. “The backs couldn’t do what they do without their blocking like they have been.”Tech would go three-and-out early in the second quarter before Barrows dashed 41 yards moments later. He pounded in from the one on the next play and the Spartans led 24-0 with 8:44 left in the half.The Tigers reached the Spartan 28 on the next drive, but were driven back and turned the ball over on downs. Two plays later, Day went 39 yards down the sideline and the Spartans took a 32-0 lead to the half.”We had a couple of missed tackles that let Day get down the sideline,” Runner said. “Those are the little things that you can’t do against teams like them.”Richie Warren Jr. returned the opening kick of the second half to midfield for the Tigers, but the St. Mary’s defense bowed up and forced another turnover on downs. Xavier Gonzalez’s 25-yard run on the next snap put the Spartans in position to score again.Four plays later, Day found pay dirt for the third time to up the lead to 40-0 after a Collier two-point conversion. The Tigers kept plugging away and got to the end zone as time expired when Gomes capped a nine play drive with his serpentine scramble.”Give Tech a lot of credit, they played right to the end,” Durgin said. “They are young and talented and James is a great coach. Their future is very bright.”