Brian Vaughan and the Classical football team know one thing for sure: They won’t be seeing anyone tougher than Catholic Memorial going forward this season.
The Rams traveled to West Roxbury Friday evening to face the Knights and got back on the bus after losing 42-12. CM coach John DiBiaso is in his second year at his new school, and, said Vaughan, he would appear to have a wagon.
“They’re tough,” said Vaughan. “They may be the best team in the state. They are huge up front. I mean, very big.”
The loss won’t hurt Classical in the final playoff standings, as this was an exclusion game — meaning the results don’t count against the team’s final postseason ratings. The Rams, who lost out on the postseason last year because they didn’t accumulate enough points to make the cut despite a 4-3 record, used Friday’s game as a test to prepare themselves for next week’s game against Brockton, another Division 1 school.
Vaughan considers next week’s game a big one.
“They (Brockton) are a very strong team,” he said. “They had a big win (Friday) against Duxbury, which is also a good team.”
In that game, the Boxers had to come back to tie Duxbury 14-14 late in the third quarter, then dominated the fourth period and won 27-14.
“As for us,” Vaughan said, “I thought our guys fought. We did some things very well, and we did some other things that need to improve. It’s just that sometimes, you just run into a brick wall and there’s not a lot you can do.”
Classical got both its touchdowns after the Knights had taken a 42-0 lead at halftime.
Kalvin So ran for a 45-yard touchdown on the team’s opening drive of the third quarter; and Marcus Ryan hauled in a 10-yard pass from quarterback Dan Gisonno in the fourth.
The game was delayed for several minutes at the end of the first quarter when the lights went out. When they came back on, CM roared through the second quarter en route to taking a large halftime lead.
