CARVER – Over three hours, four quarters, and an overtime – Carver will bask in every second.
The Crusaders were able to end a 17-year losing streak at the hands of Cohasset and stunned the Skippers in a come-from-behind 42-36 overtime victory to remain undefeated.
The contest was the first South Shore League Tobin Division game for each team and set the tone for the rest of the season as Carver claimed the top spot early on.
Carver (5-0; 1-0) trailed by 15 headed into the fourth quarter before Tyler Lennox hit Robbie Anderson for a 29-yard touchdown pass with 6:29 left in regulation. After Derek Lopes hauled in the two-point conversion, the score ended 36-36 in regulation.
Carver only yielded 4.5 points per game entering Friday but showed up when needed as it was able to limit the first overtime series for Cohasset to a 24-yard chip-shot field goal.
It was Carver’s turn and after Lennox had two incompletions in the end zone, he went back to the bread and butter as he found Anderson on a curl route on a third-and-goal from the 10-yard line to send the packed house of Crusaders fans into a frenzy with the three-point win.
“(Cohasset) is a tough team, they threw some stuff at us that I wasn’t really expecting, and our boys pulled through,” said Carver head coach Ben Shuffain. “We were down two scores going into the fourth and our offense had its ups and downs, we actually had to punt many times, but we have the quarterback, Ty Lennox, and the line played great, the defense came through, and we made some adjustments.”
Lennox was chased throughout by the front five of Cohasset but punched the clock with four touchdowns – two through the air and two on the ground – to lead the comeback. The senior captain was electric down the stretch, added to his school-record touchdown and passing records, and finished 21-of-37 for 348 yards.
Coach Shuffain was emotional with the enormity of the win for his program, erasing 17 years of futility against the Skippers in the South Shore League.
“This team just has it, they have the tenacity, and fought through adversity and we hadn’t seen that in the first four weeks, but we saw it in this one,” said Shuffain. “I think the sky’s the limit for this team. I think (this win) is huge for this program, this town, we ‘ve had a lot of struggles lately with some loss, and this team has come together the last few weeks.”
Cohasset (2-3; 0-1) didn’t back down and had three unanswered scores as the Skippers scored as time expired in the first half on a Will Norgeot catch from hard luck losing quarterback Mike Wildfire that was ruled a touchdown after an official review at the goal line.
Cohasset came out of the locker room and put two more on the board as Norgeot hauled in his second touchdown reception of the game and Liam Appleton added his second 1-yard touchdown plunge of the game for a 36-21 lead with 2:50 left in the third quarter.
Wildfire was step for step with Lennox in the offensive donnybrook going 15-of-24 for 274 yards and three passing touchdowns for the Skippers and head coach Pete Afanasiw knows it’s too early to declare a winner just yet.
“It’s not done, and this will teach you one thing, one win doesn’t mean anything,” said Afanasiw. “Part of their execution was we had opportunities to make plays and we just didn’t make critical plays. We had had a couple of incompletes when we could have extended a drive and one with under two minutes to go.”
Afanasiw lamented the three Skippers turnovers but the costly one was late in the fourth when Camren Allain picked off a pass and ran it back 25 yards to send the game into overtime and essentially give the Crusaders new life and a win over their arch nemesis in the extra stanza.
“When the back is against the wall, they don’t quit. Last year we played Cohasset and went down a few scores and we quit. This team doesn’t quit,” said Shuffain. “They say on good teams coaches lead and on great teams, players lead, and this is a great team. We didn’t stop fighting till the last second.”
