LYNN — Despite some shaky play early in the game, the No. 3 St. Mary’s football team put together a stellar rushing attack and a solid defensive game to take down No. 14 Boston English 34-8 in the first round of the Division 6 playoffs at Manning Field Friday night.
“It’s obviously great to get the win and it’s great that we put up 34 points against a good team, but we need to play a lot better if we’re going to get to where we want to be,” said St. Mary’s coach Sean Driscoll. “We had too many penalties, too many turnovers, too many missed tackles and too many miscommunications out there. We’ve got to clean that stuff up.”
Running back David Brown Jr. had a massive night for the Spartans, notching more than 200 yards from scrimmage (171 rushing yards, 44 receiving yards) to go along with two rushing touchdowns. Fellow running back Derick Coulanges wasn’t far behind in the yardage department, rushing for 138 yards with three touchdowns. Quarterback Ali Barry supplemented the offense by completing 3-of-4 passes for 100 yards.
“Those guys are two dynamic playmakers for us, and they were great tonight,” Driscoll said of Brown and Coulanges. “It helps that we have two guys like that who can play off of each other and keep giving the defense different looks.”
The Spartans got off to a solid start after receiving the opening kickoff, capitalizing quickly when Brown rushed for a touchdown from 17 yards out to take a 7-0 lead less than two minutes in.
Some shaky play followed from there on both sides, as St. Mary’s fumbled the ball away twice and Boston English threw an interception.
But the Spartans settled down a bit after that, and on their next offensive possession Brown broke free for a 76-yard touchdown run to make it a 14-0 game after one quarter.
Boston English finally got on the board early in the second quarter thanks to a touchdown run from Terrell Gethers, but St. Mary’s quickly responded when Coulanges scored his first touchdown of the game on a 30-yard run to make it 20-8. About six minutes later, Coulanges scored again when he capped off a nine-play Spartans drive with a four-yard touchdown run — giving St. Mary’s a 27-8 lead at the halftime break.
The momentum continued to fall in the Spartans’ favor as the second half got going, with Brown picking off a pass midway through the third quarter to give St. Mary’s the ball back. It took seven plays — including a 44-yard connection between Barry and Brown — to get the ball into the end zone, with Coulanges scoring his third touchdown of the game when he rushed it in from seven yards out to make it 34-8.
The score held from there, as the St. Mary’s defense was able to stifle any momentum that Boston English tried to gain in the closing minutes.
St. Mary’s (8-1 moves on to face No. 6 Medway next Friday (6) back at Manning Field in the quarterfinal round of the Division 6 playoffs.
“We scrimmaged them early in the year and we know they’re a very good football team,” Driscoll said of Medway, which beat No. 11 Bellingham, 44-21, Friday night. “We’re going to have to come out and have a great week of practice next week and really work to fix all of those little mistakes. If we play like this again next week, we’re going to be in for a long night.”
