NEW BEDFORD — After losing its first two games of the season, the St. Mary’s football team has recovered nicely. That recovery continued over the weekend as the Spartans went on the road to earn a 21-7 win over Bishop Stang in a Catholic Central League bout. With the win, St. Mary’s has now earned three straight victories.
“I think we’re really starting to round into form as a team,” said Driscoll. “We lost those first two games to St. John’s Prep and a tough Williams team, and I think we came out of those losses with a lot of positives as well as things to work on. The guys have really come back strong lately, and it’s resulted in three wins for us.”
The Spartans had things working well in all three phases of the game, as St. Mary’s notched some long touchdown plays on offense, earned an interception and a fumble recovery on defense and blocked a punt on special teams.
“We were incredibly sound in all phases of the game (Saturday), and that was a key to the win,” said Driscoll. “We got off to a little bit of a slow start coming off the bus, but once we settled in we were able to move the football well. Defensively, we were stellar from the opening kickoff.”
After battling through a scoreless first quarter, St. Mary’s was the first to get on the scoreboard in the second quarter. Despite not moving the ball with a ton of efficiency to that point, that changed in an instant when Derick Coulanges took a handoff, broke one outside and raced 66 yards for a score to put the Spartans up 7-0.
But Stang fought right back, notching a touchdown pass on the final play of the first half to knot it at 7-7 heading into the halftime break.
St. Mary’s started the second half with some positive momentum after making a defensive stop and avoiding the double-score from Stang. Then, when Stang tried to punt the ball away, Tommy Falasca broke through the line and blocked the kick. The Spartans recovered the ball deep in Stang territory, and they capitalized quickly. Kevon Dulin punched the ball in from a few yards out for the score, and Michael Anderson’s second extra point of the game put St. Mary’s back out in front 14-7.
That score held until early in the fourth quarter, when St. Mary’s earned itself from breathing room after David Brown Jr. broke free and raced for a 53-yard touchdown. Following another extra point from Anderson, the Spartans rounded out the scoring at 21-7.
St. Mary’s (3-2) closes out the season Friday evening (6) on the road at Austin Prep.
“We’d love to close out the season with a victory, especially since we’ll be back at it in a few months,” said Driscoll. “To be able to go into this short second offseason with some positive momentum would be huge, especially for a young team like ours.”
