BROCKTON – In a matchup of strong Catholic Central opponents, it was the Bishop Feehan defense that came out on top on the road Friday.
With five sacks and five forced turnovers, Bishop Feehan was able to shut out a potent Cardinal Spellman offense 24-0 at Potvin Field.
“We have a tremendous amount of respect for Spellman,” said Bishop Feehan coach Bryan Pinabell. “They are a very well-coached team. They do a lot of good things on offense and going into it I knew we would need to have our best defensive game of the year.”
The defense answered that call as they pressured Cardinal Spellman’s offensive line all game, including two sacks each for junior Reid Clemente and senior captain Sean Judge.
“Judge is a big part of that, but so is Reid,” Pinabell said about the playmaking ability of his defense. “A lot of the sacks that were caused, Reid does not get credit for his pressure. Sean has been getting better week by week.”
Judge also added a pick in the second half as well as two tackles for loss.
“Getting after the quarterback is fun,” said Judge about his ability to cause pressure. “I love this defense a lot. It’s just aggressiveness, to be honest with you.”
On the opening drive, Bishop Feehan (5-1) opened up the scoring with a 38-yard field goal for junior Austin Clement thanks in a big part to a 41-yard catch-and-run for senior captain Brett McCaffery (seven catches, 79 yards).
The defenses took over after that as sophomore Bradyn Goodwin picked off Cardinals Spellman’s Matt O’Donnell near the end zone.
Sophomore Andrew Orphanos picked off O’Donnell on the next series with Cardinal Spellman (5-1) backed into their own end zone. Orphanos brought it back 24 yards for the pick six to give the Shamrocks a 10-0 advantage early in the second quarter.
The rest of the second was spent trading punts as the teams combined for 43 yards, with the Cardinals finishing the first half with just 57 yards of offense to 103 for the Shamrocks.
Orphanos added another interception right before halftime with Cardinal Spellman with the ball around midfield. He also grabbed his third of the day in the fourth as the Cardinals were held to fewer than 100 yards offensively.
On the offensive side of the ball, junior David Quinn did the bulk of his work in the second half with scores from four yards out with 3:35 left in the third as well as from two yards out to make it 24-0 with 1:22 remaining. He finished with 79 yards on 14 carries.
Next up, Bishop Feehan will play at Bishop Fenwick next Thursday at 6 p.m. Cardinal Spellman will host St. Mary’s of Lynn next Friday at 6:30 p.m.
