FOXBOROUGH — The Bishop Fenwick football team gave all it had in Saturday’s Division 6 state championship against Ashland, but in the end the Crusaders came up just short in a 28-22 loss at Gillette Stadium.
Fenwick led 14-13 heading into the fourth quarter, but an injury to starting quarterback Chrys Wilson (10-of-21, 160 yards, two touchdowns) along with a pair of missed opportunities in the third quarter doomed the Crusaders.
Ashland quarterback Dominic Cavanagh (13-of-21, 270 yards, three passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown) took advantage where the Crusaders didn’t, leading his Clockers to a win.
“I’ll tell you, our kids played great,” Fenwick coach Dave Woods said. “Our defense played great all day, I thought. (Ashland) is an explosive offense. They’re very tough to contain and I thought we did that for the most part. It was a great football game between two great teams. We were hoping it was going to come down to a score at the end.”
Ashland started the day fast, scoring on its first drive on a touchdown pass to Brian Gazard from Cavanagh to take a 6-0 lead.
Fenwick answered when Wilson capped off a 60-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Angel Martinez on fourth down to tie things up at 6-6.
A few big plays later, Ashland grabbed the lead back when Cavanagh and Gazard connected on a 31-yard score to go ahead 13-6.
But the Crusaders clawed back to go ahead before half. Martinez scored again on great grab for 14-yard touchdown catch on another fourth down. Wilson hit Stefano Fabiano on the conversion to give Fenwick a 14-13 lead.
“Angel is absolutely a playmaker,” Woods said. “We just have to find him, anyway we can to get the ball to him. He showed it. He’s an explosive kid and he can do a lot of things. Hopefully he gets another chance here next year to make some plays.”
But Fenwick couldn’t seize the momentum from those big plays in the second half. The Crusaders started the second half with great field position but couldn’t distance themselves from Ashland.
“The kickoff at the beginning of the half, we got the ball at the 45 yard line,” Woods said. “We have to be able to go down and put it in the end zone. But you have to give Ashland credit. Their defense played great and they made plays when they had to. It was a great football game.”
Cavanagh took over the final quarter, scoring on a quarterback sneak and throwing a 5-yard touchdown to Kevin Russell to give the Clockers a 28-13 lead with under three minutes to play.
With Wilson down, the Crusaders turned to sophomore Steven Woods at quarterback and he gave Fenwick as good a chance as it could hope for.
Woods connected with Jason Romans on a 10-yard pass and Romans swung a pitch back to Fabiano, who ran 24-yards to put Fenwick in scoring range. Next, Woods threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Romans to cut Ashland’s lead to 28-22 after a conversion toss to Ethan Gonzalez.
But it was too little too late. Cavanagh scampered for a first down on the Clockers’ next possession to seal the victory.
Things may not have ended with another championship banner for the Crusaders, but after a great run Woods is still proud of his seniors for the culture they created.
“From last January when we started working out at six o’clock in the morning, the seniors led the way all the way,” Woods said. “Kids like (offensive lineman) Andrew Wallace, kids like him really set the tone for what type of culture we want in our football program. It’s the underclassmen’s job now to follow in their footsteps now.”
