WINTHROP — Friday night’s Northeastern Conference tilt between English and Winthrop belonged to Bulldogs receiver Prince Brown.
Brown (six receptions, 90 yards) caught two touchdown passes and ran in another to lead English to a 41-13 win over Winthrop at Miller Field in the regular season finale.
“Prince is a very dynamic weapon for us,” English coach Chris Carroll said. “He stepped up and made some big plays. He’s worked hard. He’s a great threat on the outside.”
Not to be outdone, fellow receivers Mathias Fowler (two catches, 40 yards, two touchdowns) and Tahj Purter (5 catches, 77 yards, one touchdown) also contributed heavily. Quarterback Matt Severance completed 13-of-21 pass attempts for 207 yards and four touchdowns.
“For starters, English’s well coached,” Winthrop coach Jon Cadigan said. “They make adjustments. We saw some of those adjustments in the second half. We didn’t execute what we needed to do defensively but we could see the subtle adjustments that they make.”
Winthrop quarterback Bobby Hubert scored both touchdowns for the Vikings.
In one of the quicker first halves of the season, English came out on top with a 14-6 edge. The Bulldogs marched into the end zone on their first possession on a drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown pass from Severance to Fowler with 9:05 left in the opening quarter. Tyler Drinan (5-for-5 on PAT’s) booted the PAT to give English a 7-0 lead. The Bulldogs threatened again on their next possession but Austin Daigneault broke up a Severance pass attempt on 4th-and-goal to keep English at bay.
Defense turned into offense for the Vikings in the second quarter, allowing them to whittle English’s lead to one point. Hubert intercepted a pass at English’s 25 and scored on a 3-yard keeper to put Winthrop on the board at 7-6 (PAT failed). Down to the closing seconds of the half, the Bulldogs swayed momentum in their favor when Brown ran in a 3-yard carry. Drinan’s PAT gave English a 14-6 lead at halftime.
“Our game plan was ‘let’s see if we can get first downs. Let’s see if we can grind it, grind it, grind it,'” Cadigan said. “For the first half, we accomplished that. It’s just those big plays. They’re a big play offense. When they get big plays, they’re really hard to stop.”
The big plays came often for English in the second half. In the third quarter, Purter returned a punt 55 yards to Winthrop territory and Severance linked up with Fowler for a 35-yard touchdown pass (Drinan PAT). Severance added a 10-yard touchdown strike to Brown to boost English’s lead to 28-6 (Drinan PAT) heading into the fourth.
“Winthrop did a great job controlling the ball in the first half,” Carroll said. “They kept our offense off the field. The adjustments we made (in the second half) were just to settle down, make our reads and play football. The guys were able to settle down, our offense picked it up and scored.”
Both teams scored in the fourth quarter. Winthrop’s Hubert broke free for a 53-yard touchdown run (Jonathan Applebee PAT). Brown reeled in a 36-yard touchdown pass from Severance and Purter returned a kickoff 60 yards for the night’s final touchdown.
English (6-1) awaits the Division 3 North pairings.
“We have to keep getting better,” Carroll said. “We’re in the dance but we have to keep getting better though. We have big games ahead and we’re looking forward to them.”
In all likelihood, Winthrop (2-5) fell short of a playoff berth in Division 6 North.
“We played the best team in our league and we played them tough,” Cadigan said. “I didn’t sign up here at Winthrop to play teams tough, I signed up to win games. There’s no moral victories but I’m excited to finish the season the right way. We can still have a winning season but we have to focus on playing four quarters.”
