Broncos remain unbeaten
Tupper ends frustrating game with crucial catch
BURRILLVILLE – Time after time at Alumni Field on Saturday morning/afternoon, senior receiver Aidan Tupper dropped passes critical to the success of his Burrillville High coaches and teammates.
After each, he shook his head in disappointment and trudged back to the huddle.
Tupper admitted he was hell-bent on making a big play to help the Broncos in their Division II-B affair with always-pesky Mount Pleasant, and that came with the score tied at 14-all and just under four minutes remaining in regulation.
Facing an unenviable third-and-16 predicament at his own 40, Tupper accepted a screen pass from sophomore signal caller Wes Cournoyer, took it upfield, bobbed and weaved past at least five defenders and sailed into the
end zone to complete a 60-yard scoring play.
That and freshman kicker Ron Stanish’s PAT boot left the Broncos celebrating a hardearned 21-14 triumph.
“I kept dropping it, and I can’t even begin to explain it; it’s so unlike me,” he said after head coach Gennaro Ferraro’s usual postgame chat with his squad. “I will say I was really upset, but as soon as I heard ‘Trips right, screen right’ in the huddle, I thought, ‘This is my play!’ I made up for it; it’s such a relief.
“As soon as I caught it, I saw my boys coming out to block for me, and that’s when I saw the ‘sidewalk’; that’s my lane,” he added. “I take that lane right to the end zone. I did have to make a few cuts, like I saw a kid coming out of the left corner of my eye, and I thought he was going to take my head off. I knew if I kept running where I was, I’d get cleaned out, so I tried juking left and it worked.”
When all was said and done, Ferraro wasn’t at all pleased with a variety of crazy mistakes, including a fumble, a pick and four penalties for a minus-40 yards, though he did say “It’s called grit, and my guys have it.
“I’m most pleased with our resolve,” he confessed. “We kept battling, but you have to credit Mount Pleasant, too. They played well, had a good scheme for us, and we just couldn’t execute. I think it was a combination of things – their scheme and positioning, our penalties and turnovers and we had too many dropped balls; those were inexcusable. It’s been that way two weeks in a row.
“They also made it difficult for us to execute on defense.”
Among those MP standouts: Senior tailback Fred Mallay, who posted 49 ground yards on 13 carries and 99 more through the air on four snags); sophomore Duce Addison, who accumulated 45 yards on 11 keepers and combined with senior Josh Richards to complete six of 23 tosses for 109 yards and two paydirts (with two interceptions).
The Kilties’ big issue on this day: Sloppiness. Officials tagged them for 16 penalties for 124 yards, plus one player was ejected at the end of the game for an alleged bump against a referee.
The other big storyline for BHS: Junior tailback/linebacker Bobby Thatcher got banged up late in the first quarter, so Ferraro and Co. decided to lighten his load. Defensive coordinator Chris Belluzzi asked little-used sophomore Tommy Reilly to replace him, and the kid proved to be a bulldozer.
Not only did he rack up a blocked punt and recovery, but also knocked down a pass and closed with a minimum of 14 tackles, according to a defensive assistant.
“I was nervous at first, but after I got one tackle, my adrenaline carried me from there, especially with all of my teammates cheering me on,” Reilly stated. “I’ve never seen this much time before, and it feels great. When they came back to tie it up, I knew I had to make a play with them being mostly an inside run team. I knew it would be their quarterback or tailback coming at me, so I had to be ready.
“I had to fill my back and cover my responsibility.”
MP did a terrific job of curtailing Thatcher’s rushing ability, as he managed only 54 yards on 14 carries, but Cournoyer completed 10 of 23 passes for 151 yards and two TDs while being picked off once.
Tupper mustered three snags for 105 yards to lead the receiving corps.
On the Broncos’ first possession, they maneuvered from the MP 49 to the 3, but Thatcher couldn’t convert a fourth-and-2, but that all changed on their second. Following a 22-yard punt, they took over on the Kilties’ 25 and needed only two snaps to take it to the house, that on senior Sam Clifford’s 14-yard catch in the right section of the end zone.
Stanish’s extra-point kick was short, but the hosts led, 6-0.
On the next two drives, Burrillville moved into MP territory before being stonewalled, and the Kilties took advantage of a 19-yard punt to set up its first score. They drove 58 yards on seven snaps, culminating on Richards’ nine-yard TD lob to classmate Abraham Paye, but BHS buried Mallay on a carry off right guard with just over a minute left before intermission.
Clifford actually gave the home team a spark when he returned the ensuing kickoff 38 yards to the MP 41, but Mallay intercepted Cournoyer’s next pass. On the very next play, however, Tupper did the same – and the Broncos received two additional yards after the Kilties were whistled for a horse collar.
Cournoyer plunged in from the 2 on a sneak, though Thatcher’s two-point rush fell short. That left BHS guarding a 12-6 cushion.
Late in the third stanza, Reilly blocked Abraham Paye’s punt and recovered, setting the Broncos up at the MP 30, yet that was squelched. And, with 7:46 remaining in regulation, Richards stepped back to punt but a high snap ruined his rhythm. He tried to pass the ball while being draped in the end zone, but officials deemed it a team safety as he lofted it to an ineligible player.
That gave Burrillville the all-important 14-6 advantage with 7:07 left, but it didn’t last long.
When the visitors booted the resulting free kick out of bounds, the Broncos gained control at the MP 45, though Clifford’s catch and fumble gave it right back. On the next play, it appeared two defenders had locked in on Mallay on a right-side screen pass at the line of scrimmage.
The latter, though, escaped and sprinted 72 yards for the score, and Addison’s conversion toss to Richards knotted it once more.
That merely set up Tupper’s avenging his drops.
“That’s a senior making a play,” Ferraro said. “He was taking responsibility for his mistakes earlier in the game. He thought, ‘Here’s my chance to pick our team up; that’s what we preach. Take advantage of your opportunities, and he did that. We did that.”