Holy Cross 28, Bridgton 20

The football team traveled to Worcester, MA to take on division I-AA opponent Holy Cross JV. The Wolverines ran out of time as their comeback attempt fell short, 28-20. In a game that Coach Marcella said, “we played well enough on both sides of the ball to win,” the Wolverines were not able to overcome a 21-7 halftime deficit.

Mistakes were the down fall for Bridgton, as they committed four turnovers, including two interceptions in the end zone and a mishandled punt on the Holy Cross 35 yard line. “If we had of converted on one of those drives for a touchdown and another for a field goal we would have won the game,” said Marcella. The Wolverines, trailing by 14 at halftime were the victims of one blown coverage that lead to an easy score, otherwise the game would have been a seven point spread at the half.

The Bridgton Academy offense controlled the game, running 90 offensive plays to Holy Cross’ 55. The offense was lead by quarterback Kenny Brock (Burlington, NJ) who threw for his third consecutive 200 yard game completing 28-42 passes for 249 yards, 1TD, however the three interceptions were the downfall. Scott Benzing (Brookfield, CT) caught nearly half of those passes as he had 127 yards on 12 receptions. Commenting on Benzing’s day Coach Marcella said, “I cannot remember when a Bridgton receiver had that many catches, or a chance for that many.” For just the second time all season, and the first for Brock in three weeks, the quarterback was sacked, “that speaks volumes about our offensive line, for a team that averages 37 pass attempts to be sacked so few times,” Marcella was quick to point out that Jake Lane (Harrison Valley PA), Kevin Colon (Lowell, MA), and Viondy Merisma (Waltham, MA) continue to get better and improve. Alex Colorito (Beaverton, OR) has continued to execute punts well and Daniel Alexander (Smmamish, WA) has done a great job with long and short snaps. Seeing action for the first time since early in week one, due to injury, was Jordan Murphy (Ayer, MA) who Marcella called, “huge for us, he (Jordan) had three big catches for us, converting a fourth down.”

The defense throughout the game improved as BA only gave up one score in the second half of the game. Coach Marcella credits both the defense and the defensive coaches who, “made adjustments and played smarter and better in the second half.” The defense was lead once again by Ryan LaFromboise (Ludlow, MA) and Brandon Murphy (Branford, CT) as well as Jonathon Balcacer (Peabody, MA) who Marcella has called, “the most improved on defense.”

As the Wolverines look ahead to the match up with Springfield College on Sunday October, 4th at 2:00PM, Coach Marcella looks for his team to play smarter, tackle better, as well as be more physical against a physical offensive team.