RallyNorth.net

Sat, Oct 09, 2010 03:00 PM @ Whittier

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Archbishop Williams	0	6	14	12	32
Whittier	8	6	8	0	22

Shank kick cripples Cats

Saturday, October, 09 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

HAVERHILL - All the training, the practice, film study and preparation, sometimes a high school football game is just settled by an “accident.”

 

Archbishop Williams of Braintree pounced on that accident here yesterday and drove it 51 yards for the decisive score in the 32-22 victory over host Whittier Tech.

 

“It was actually an accident,” said Archies’ coach Bill Kinsherf of a boot that spun awkwardly into a brilliant fourth-quarter onside kick. “(With the wind at their back) we were trying to kick it through the end zone to keep it away from their return guys. He just miskicked it, and we caught a break.”

 

Blessed with the bonus possession, the Archies, up 26-22 with 6:47 left, put the ball in their All-Scholastic-caliber halfback Alex Furtado’s hands eight straight times, all the way to the end zone, milking five minutes off the clock and basically putting it out of reach.

 Before the misfire, Whittier Tech coach Kevin Bradley exhorted his young team, “We score and we win!”

 

It was that kind of back-and-forth afternoon before the shank.

 

The Cats, stretched thin by the Archies’ spread formation, simply couldn’t get a hold of the elusive Furtado, who rolled up 235 yards on 27 carries.

 

“We saw them (against Salem) and they passed every single down,” said Bradley. “Hey, they did a good job. We knew they could run, but we didn’t expect them to come out and pound it right at us. They did.”

 

With TD plunges by Jack Creesy and Shane Surette, Whittier jumped out to a 14-0 lead by grinding out a pair of long TD drives before Furtado found his legs.

 

“Salem took the run away from us, we just worked all week with the offensive line, picking up schemes, figuring out blocks,” said Kinsherf. “We’re too big and strong not to be able to run the ball. We were determined to run the ball. Alex is a special player. He’s got good moves, good speed and can take over a game at any time.”

 The Cats led 14-6 at the break and then 22-12 after a Creesy 25-yard dash with four minutes left in the third.

 

But Williams had all the answers late, first with Furtado and then with QB Tom Fitzpatrick, who caught the Cats creeping up on a pivotal play-action TD bomb to Elvin Soufrant, giving the Archies their first lead in the fourth at 26-22.

 

“We took it for granted from the second quarter on,” said Bradley. “The Archies were able to get themselves organized. They came out and stuck it to us. We answered them in the third quarter. We just couldn’t make it up in the fourth.”

 

Whittier, now 2-3, heads to the heart of its Commonwealth Conference schedule with a Saturday morning home date against Minuteman.

Additional stories:

• Shank kick cripples Cats