Late TD lifts 11-0 Shawsheen Tech past Dover-Sherborn
A 34-yard fourthdown touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Sid Tildsley to junior receiver Ryan Copson with 2:04 remaining led Shawsheen Tech to a 21-14 victory over Dover-Sherborn at Weston High School on Saturday afternoon.
“I’m speechless right now,” said Copson. “I’m just happy I’m going to the Super Bowl with all of my teammates. We worked so hard for this all year long. We made it.”
Shawsheen will face North Reading (10-1) on Dec. 3 for the Div. 5 championship.
“It was a hardfought game all the way through,” said senior Mavrick Bourdeau, who took several snaps at quarterback for the Rams. “We couldn’t have asked for a better game.”
The back-and-forth contest wasn’t over until a fourth-down pass by Raider quarterback Garrett Webb fell incomplete with 1:15 to go.
Shawsheen (11-0) took a 7-0 lead with 5:45 left in the second quarter after a sack by freshman James Tildsley forced a fumble that was recovered by junior Cullen Walsh at the Raider 24yard line.
Five plays later, Sid Tildsley scored on a 3-yard run with a stretching leap to the pylon. Sophomore Jack Finn added the extra point.
A 17-yard pass to senior Mavrick Bourdeau on a fourth-and-six play set up the touchdown.
Dover Sherborn moved to the Shawsheen 31-yard line on its next possession, but on fourth-and-10, Webb was intercepted by Sid
Tildsley, who returned the pick 72 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead for the Rams with 2:45 to go before halftime.
The vaunted Raider defense made an impact in the second half, recovering a fumble at the Shawsheen 29-yard line midway through the third quarter and turning the takeaway into a touchdown.
Senior Michael Polk scored on a 5-yard run with five minutes left in the quarter.
The extra point missed, keeping Shawsheen up eight, 14-6.
An interception by Raider senior Mekhi Robinson, who also recovered the fumble, led to another Dover-Sherborn score.
Led by Polk, the Raiders drove 31 yards for a touchdown when Polk picked up a fumbled snap and pitched to junior Emilio Cabey, who scored for two yards out. The conversion pass from Webb to Cabey tied the game at 14.
A strange sequence would follow.
Shawsheen fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Raiders recovered at the Ram 14-yard line before Dover-Sherborn fumbled on the very next play and Shawsheen pounced on the loose ball.
The Rams then drove 85 yards for the winning touchdown
Completions of 17, 11 and 23 yards to Bourdeau set up the score.
“We work so hard, that’s the reason we’re in this position,” Bourdeau said. “This is a family, that’s really what it is. Everyone doubts us because we’re a tech school, that’s how it is and it will always be like that, but here we are, we’re going to Gillette.”