Fenwick wins 20th straight game

PEABODY ? Of the 20 games in a row won by the Bishop Fenwick football team, this was one of the toughest.Rufus Rushins scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to provide the Crusaders (4-0) with their margin of victory in a 28-14 win over a resilient Cardinal Spellman team, Friday night, at Donaldson Field.”They’re a good team; they’d be a good Div. 1 team,” Cardinal Spellman coach Ron St. George said. “They have a big offensive line. And, of course that number 49 (Rushins) is a terrific back.”Fenwick dominated the beginning and the end, but a big chunk of the middle of the game was controlled by the Cardinals (1-2), who got a 3-yard touchdown run by Matt Anastasi and then a 27-yard scoring pass form Mike Reale to Jake O’Kelly late in the second quarter to tie the game 14-14 at halftime.Josh Niconchuk scored on a 1-yard run and Matt Renzulli hit Cody Mullen with a 56-yard pass for the Crusaders in the first quarter.”It was a tough game, which is what we expected,” Fenwick coach Dave Woods said. “They’re always a physical team and they take pride in it.”Fenwick scored on its first drive of the game, a 46-yard march that featured five carries by Rushins (169 yards-33 carries for the game). Niconchuk, who plays nose tackle on defense, plowed in for the tocuhdown with 4:44 left in the first quarter.The Crusaders added another score on their second drive when Renzulli found Mullen on a fly pattern down the left sideline. Mullen out-fought a defender for the ball, and then broke a tackle at the Spellman 10-yard line before he went into the end zone.Fenwick had the ball at Spellman’s 35-yard line for its third drive, but the complexion of game suddenly changed when Reale intercepted a pass and returned it to the Fenwick 31. Five running plays later, Anastasi bowled over from the three and Fenwick’s lead was cut to 14-6, with 6:17 left in the firs thalf.Another interception, this time by Lesley Decembre, gave the ball back to the Cardinals, who went on a 71-yard drive that included a 31-yard screen pass from Cam Sass to Anastasi on 3rd-and-12. With six seconds left in the half, Reale located O’Kelly at the right hash marks for a touchdown. Ralph Grillone’s rush for two points was good to tie the game.Fenwick committed its third straight turnover when Rushins fumbled at his own 23-yard line, with Jason Davern recovering. The Cardinals got the ball to the 11 before Reale fumbled. Dan Hannon picked up the ball and returned it to the Fenwick 40 before he fumbed, with Alex Tynan recovering.Spellman marched deep into Fenwick territory again, but Hannon broke up a pass on fourth-and-6 from the 12.The Crusaders quickly collected themselves and gave the ball to Rushins, who had runs of 17 and 28 yards on a drive that ended with a 14-yard run around left end on the third play of the second quarter.”The offensive line came to me and started begging to run the ball out of the power-I,” Woods said.After a three-and-out by Spellman, Rushins toted the ball on 12 of 13 plays as the Crusaders drove 58-yards for a score that clinched the game when Rushins powered in from 1-yard out with 19 seconds left in the game.