Stout Xaverian defense shuts down CM

The calling card for Xaverian hasn’t changed. It’s called defense. Xaverian put forth yet another dominating defensive performance last night, shutting down Catholic Memorial and holding the Knights to just 23 yards of total offense en route to a 17-0 Catholic Conference victory at James R. O’Connor Stadium.

“We’ve played pretty good defense the last few years,” said Xaverian coach Charlie Stevenson, who earned career victory No. 199. “Tonight was another stellar effort on the defensive side of the ball.”

Since having its 25-game win streak snapped by Bridgewater-Raynham two weeks ago, Xaverian hasn’t allowed a point.

The Hawks (3-1) stymied CM (2-2) to pick up its second straight shutout, forcing three turnovers and allowing just two first downs, one of which came on a pass interference penalty.

“That loss was a good wakeup call,” said defensive lineman Cal Flanders, who had a fumble recovery. “That showed us that we had to step up. We needed to play harder, we needed to play faster, we needed to play stronger, smarter.”

Xaverian got in front with a 5-yard touchdown run by Devon Piccinin (22 carries, 111 yards) to go up, 7-0, with 2:34 left in the first quarter.

The vaunted defense made sure that touchdown was enough. Still holding a 7-0 lead, the Hawks started the second half with a 13play drive that took nearly nine minutes off the clock. Brian Fallon capped it off with a 21-yard field goal to go ahead, 10-0.

After both teams exchanged punts, Xaverian went on another 13-play drive that chewed up over six minutes. It ended with quarterback Mattison Cronin hitting Mekhi Henderson on a 5-yard touchdown pass with 2:56 left in regulation.

With its dominant ball possession and defense, Xaverian ran 35 plays in the second half to the Knights’ seven, which netted only 7 yards.

“We had a lot of great, timeconsuming drives all game long,” Stevenson said. “Clearly we possessed the ball for long spells of time. That’s the kind of football team we are.”