DUXBURY — The Duxbury soccer group is aware of what it has in quarterback Matt Festa, among the best gamers within the state.
Coach Matt Landolfi and his gamers are conscious that in the event that they ask Festa to beat groups along with his arm, then the senior can try this.
There have been instances when Festa made massive throws in Thursday night time’s season opener towards Hanover. But, finally, the Dragons earned the 21-7 win with its operating sport and protection.
And no matter method it was completed, 1-0 is 1-0, and Duxbury will take that.
“It’s definitely an old-school win,” Landolfi stated. “Last year we were mostly all pass. There was definitely an emphasis to run it more this year. Our offensive line is really athletic. They’re smart kids. They really put the effort in today. Some penalties kind of hurt our drives, but they came through in the end, which was fantastic.”
Leading the best way was junior operating again Alex Barlow, who completed with 164 yards and a landing on 19 carries. Festa accomplished 9-of-18 passes for 100 yards and a landing. He additionally rushed for 79 yards and a landing on 17 makes an attempt.
The offensive line of Nicholas Ayres, Brent Watts, Jack Johnson, Spencer Moore, and Charlie Smith blocked properly all night time.
Duxbury led 14-7 at halftime, and that’s the way it stayed going into the fourth quarter. The Dragons then took over at their very own 21 with 6:27 to play. They adopted with a 10-play drive, which included a 34-yard Barlow achieve, and a 7-yard Barlow rush on fourth-and-2 from close to midfield.
Barlow completed the drive with a 2-yard landing with 2:19 to play that primarily iced it.
“We’ve got to take the pressure off Matt,” Barlow stated. “He’s a great player, but he can only do so much. We had to help him out.”
It appeared that Duxbury was going to run away with this early on. Duxbury scored on its first two possessions of the primary quarter: a 4-yard Festa landing run; and, a 9-yard scoring move from Festa to Chris Walsh.
But Hanover battled again. Junior quarterback Ben Scalzi, who completed with 173 yards passing, rolled to his left and hit Mehki Bryan with a 19-yard landing within the second quarter.
That’s the way it stayed till the fourth quarter, because the Duxbury protection stuffed an extended Hanover drive contained in the Dragons’ 10-yard line within the third.
The sport was the primary between Landolfi and his brother, Chris, who’s the coach of Hanover.
“It’s nerve-wracking,” Matt Landolfi stated. “I wanted to beat him. He wanted to beat me. We’ll probably fight during Thanksgiving. It’ll be a fistfight, probably.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com