PEABODY — The weather may have been perfect for Bishop Fenwick’s Homecoming weekend, but that’s about all that went right Saturday for the Crusaders’ football team, which fell to undefeated Archbishop Williams, 49-27, at Donaldson Stadium.
The Crusaders struggled in all phases of the game and simply had no answers for the Bishops’ high-flying offense.
“We didn’t play very good football,” said Crusaders’ coach Dave Woods. “We have to obviously play better defense. We just have to play better everywhere. But again, it wasn’t just defense. It was everything – to be honest. We need to play with a different attitude. Hopefully, we can watch the film and learn a little something and start to get better and better starting Tuesday.”
“Fenwick’s always a great program with great coaches. They’re tough kids, so this was a great win for us,” said Archbishop Williams coach Mark Landolfi. “The kids came out and scored right away and got the two points, which was great. Then, it kind of went back and forth. Overall, the kids played hard; they played great. They were prepared and practiced hard all week.They played well.”
The visitors struck first, taking an 8-0 lead late in the first quarter on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Hudson Garrity to Blake Nelson. Nelson scored on the two-point attempt.
After Fenwick’s defense forced a turnover on downs, quarterback Andrew Kiricopoles hit Jesse Timson from 33 yards out to put Fenwick on the board with 8:22 left in the second quarter (8-6).
The rest of the first half was all Archbishop Williams, which capitalized with scores on its next three possessions to take a 26-6 into the halftime break. Garrity (11-for-16, 270 yards, 4 TDs) threw a 77-yard bomb to Nelson and 55-yarder to Syer Copeland to bump the lead to 20-6, then Jadon Beatty returned an interception 67 yards to the house.
“The interception by Jadon Beatty right before the half really helped us,” Landolfi said. “We thought we’d come out in the second half like we did in the first half, but it didn’t really work out that way. They stopped us and then they scored, so I think the kids saw they were back in this game again.”
Fenwick forced a punt on the Bishops’ first possession of the second half, then needed just one play to make it a two-score game, 26-13, on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Kiricopoles to Tristan Giles (Ian Guarino kick).
Woods said Giles (5 catches, 75 yards) was a bright spot.
“Tristan Giles was a warrior today,” Woods said. “He played his heart out. He comes to every single play and every single practice. He’s just a kid who’s humble – who plays football the way it’s supposed to be played. If I had 22 Tristan Giles on the team, I’d be happy.”
As it had all game long, Williams answered right back with Garrity’s fourth touchdown pass, this one a 4-yarder to Nelson.
The teams traded punts on their next possessions. At the 9:31 mark of the fourth quarter, Fenwick again made it a two-score game at 34-20 on a Kiricopoles-to-Giles 15-yard strike and Guarino extra point.
But that was as close as the Crusaders came the rest of the way.
Landolfi said Fenwick’s pulling to within 14 points was a wake-up call.
“It became a close game again, but the kids were able to respond,” he said. “The offensive line allowed us to start running the ball more and we ran the ball very well. And everybody stepped up defensively. Everyone played well and made plays when we needed them.
Odin Garron (6 catches, 59 yards) closed out the scoring for the Crusaders, hauling in a 40-yard pass from Kiricopoles (Guarino kick) to make it 42-27 with just less than five minutes to go.
Kiricopoles had a busy afternoon, completing 22-of-39 passes for four touchdowns and 232 yards.
“I thought Andrew played great. He’s just a sophomore and made a few mistakes, but that’s to be expected,” Woods said. “He makes more really good plays, so I can live with whatever mistakes he makes. He made some outstanding throws today. We didn’t do great up front, so, yes, he was under pressure, but played very well.”
Tyler Connolly (5 rushes, 59 yards) and Dylan Patturelli (9 rushes, 38 yards) led the Crusaders’ ground attack, while Jamie Dube (3 catches, 30 yards), Connolly (4 catches, 21 yards), Damon Mataragas (2 catches, 8 yards) and Guarino (catch, 6 yards) contributed to the air attack.
Archbishop Williams (4-0) returns Friday against Arlington Catholic at 6 p.m. Fenwick (1-3) is back in action the same night with an away game against Cardinal Spellman at 6 p.m.
“I haven’t seen them yet, but right now, the focus is on us, not anyone else,” Woods said. “We need to be the team we know we can be. We have the talent to be that team.”
