COURTESY PHOTO BY ALAN BELANICH
Falmouth’s Michael LaFrange has scored 22 touchdowns this season.
By STEVE KRAUSE
The team that loses Saturday in the Division 2A Super Bowl will suffer its first loss of the season, whichever team it is.
Falmouth (12-0) will square off against Marblehead (11-0) Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in the Division 2A Super Bowl.
The reason for the extra game is that the Magicians drew the bye and did not have to play a state semifinal while the Clippers had to tussle with Marlborough, which they defeated 27-20 the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
“The game was a war,” said coach Derek Almeida. “It was a dog fight, and they had a lot of really great players,” said Almeida. “They had some size and strength advantages in a few spots, but our guys played physical and never backed down. They went toe-to-toe all game.”
The Clippers are coming off a 40-21 Thanksgiving win over Barnstable. They are led by senior quarterback Nick Couhig, who recently signed his national letter of intent to play baseball at Boston College next year. Couhig rushed for 82 yards and two scores against Barnstable and completed 5 of 7 passes for 120 yards and three touchdowns.
Couhig is joined in the backfield by senior running back Michael LaFrange, who has 22 touchdowns this season, most of which have come on offense.
Falmouth runs a triple option in which Couhig can throw, run it or pitch to a running back, and LaFrange is usually one of his running back options, along with either Sam Koss or Trevor Nunes.
When he throws it, Couhig has mostly targeted seniors Jean Vazquez and Trent Leachman. Leachman and Vazquez each caught touchdown passes against Barnstable (LaFrange caught the third in a game in which he had 115 combined rushing and receiving yards), while Vazquez caught two against Marlboro in the state semifinals.
Fullback Gates Kelliher rushed for 57 yards against Barnstable and 40 and a TD against Marlboro. Senior Colby Murphy has also gotten snaps at fullback and is the starting kicker.
Most of the Clippers play both offense and defense. The offensive line includes senior captains Evan Elichalt, James Lavin and Zach Murphy.
As for Marblehead?
“We don’t know much about them yet but I suspect we will take a look a little bit this week,” said Almeida. “Then Friday after Thanksgiving, it will be all about Marblehead and we will get after it hard.”
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].