St. Mary’s falls to AC in overtime

LYNN – Simply put, what transpired at Manning Field on Saturday night will go down as one of the best games the North Shore has seen in recent memory.St. Mary’s and Arlington Catholic went toe-to-toe in a battle of unbeatens that needed overtime to see a decision reached. The Cougars stopped Todd Collier six inches short of a touchdown on fourth and goal and then took the 30-24 win on quarterback Patrick O’Donnell’s three-yard run on their overtime possession.”Both teams played so hard and left it on the field,” St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin said. “We had tremendous effort for four quarters and it came down to overtime. Tip your hat to them, they made a couple of big plays when it was needed.”The drama was there from the very beginning and it climaxed with O’Donnell’s plunge on second and goal, leading to a raucous celebration by the Cougars and the student section, which stormed the field.”I knew it would be a battle. Matt and his coaches do such a great job getting their team ready,” Arlington Catholic coach Serge Clivio said. “It was a classic game, one of the best I’ve ever been a part of.”The Cougars (6-0, 1-0 CCL Large) had a 24-16 lead with 7:45 left after an O’Donnell to John Mottola touchdown pass, setting the stage for the tension to go sky high.St. Mary’s (5-1, 0-1 CCL Large) took over at midfield after the kickoff and systematically drove towards the end zone. Collier got the Spartans within two as he scored from the eight with 2:08 left for his third score of the night. He then tacked on the 2-point conversion to deadlock the game.”Collier is the best high school football player I’ve ever seen,” Clivio said. “He is such a hard-working kid and I’ve never seen a kid run as hard as he does.”The Cougars weren’t done in regulation though as O’Donnell worked the 2-minute drill to perfection, guiding his team to the Spartan six with two seconds left. Mottola lined up for a 23-yard field goal but the snap was bad and O’Donnell threw a rushed incompletion.”That was going to be a kick all the way but those things happen. I was proud of my kids for not putting their head down after that,” Clivio said.AC won the toss in overtime and elected to play defense, giving the ball to St. Mary’s at the 10.Collier gained three on first down and Cory Donahue (12-97) added three more on second. The Cougar front line made a shoe top tackle on third down to hold Collier to two yards, setting up fourth-and-goal at the two.The Spartan workhorse got the call but was stood up by Anthony Reale less than a foot from breaking the plane of the end zone.Needing any sort of points to win, the Cougars didn’t waste time. Reale gained seven on first down before O’Donnell netted his second touchdown of the night to end the drama.”It was an outstanding game by both teams,” Durgin said. “There was a lot of emotion on both sides and their quarterback made some big-time throws when he had to.”