St. Mary’s loss to Spellman severely dents hopes for league title

BROCKTON – For the second consecutive autumn, the St. Mary’s football team witnessed its chances for a Catholic Central League/Large championship go by the wayside thanks to Cardinal Spellman.In what turned out to be a defensive battle, the Cardinals held the Spartans to 172 total yards and got a touchdown pass and run from Pat Hinkley to take a 14-6 win and knock St. Mary’s out of title contention.”I couldn’t have asked for anything more from my team,” St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin said of his club’s performance after dropping an overtime decision to Arlington Catholic last week.”It was a defensive battle and Spellman did a great job of shutting us down,” Durgin said.The Spartans (5-2, 0-2 CCL) spent much of the game snapping the ball in Spellman territory.However, the Spartans could not finish on a pair of first half drives that reached inside the Cardinal 30.And then the Spartans were held to only six third quarter points despite holding Spellman to only three snaps.”If we could have scored on one of those early drives, maybe it would have been a different game,” Durgin said.”But as coaches, we really couldn’t have asked for anything else from them.”They came back after a hard loss and played great,” Durgin said.After an exchange of punts in the opening quarter, the Spartans drove to the Cardinals 29. But the defense stiffened for Spellman and turned the ball over on downs.On the ensuing drive, Hinkley would do the bulk of his damage for the day.The senior rushed for 64 of his 115 yards and helped his team gain four of its nine first downs on a 12 play march that carried into the second quarter.Scott O’Brien cashed in on the drive with a two-yard plunge. Ben Cowan’s extra point made the score 7-0.St. Mary’s responded with another good drive, but fullback Xavier Gonzalez got stripped at the Spellman 30 and Derek Barros recovered for the Cardinals to preserve the 7-0 halftime lead.”They certainly have an outstanding defense,” Durgin said.O’Brien put the Cardinals in position to strike when he returned the second half kick to the St. Mary’s 27. But the Spartans stiffened and held when Todd Collier batted down a fourth down pass from Hinkley.St. Mary’s again drove into Spellman territory but had to punt with 1:50 left in the third. However, Hinkley muffed the punt and St. Mary’s recovered at the 19.Collier did the rest as he carried to the one and then for a touchdown on the next play to make it 7-6.The Spartans went for two but Joe Glynn knifed in and tackled Collier in the backfield to preserve the one point lead at the end of three.St. Mary’s punted early in the fourth quarter, giving the hosts back the ball with 7:42 remaining at the Spartan 47.Dan Kustka and Hinkley then took turns gashing the defense as Spellman reached the 11 with 2:58 left.The Cardinals then dug deep in the playbook as Burke pitched to Hinkley, who in turn pulled up and threw a perfect strike to Burke at the right pylon for a critical touchdown.”That was a great time for that call and they executed it,” Durgin said.St. Mary’s last chance would go quickly as two Collier runs were followed by two incompletions to turn the ball over on downs as Spellman gained the one first down it needed to run the final 1:45 out.”I’m proud of the way we played,” Durgin said.”But now this team will be defined by how we bounce back from this,” he said.