SEEKING SEVEN

Hawks trounce Patriots for shot at seventh consecutive title

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 11/23/16

After the final horn sounded, the Hendricken football team casually strolled onto the field following business as usual. There was little celebration and fanfare, as the journey was nowhere near finished. It's

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SEEKING SEVEN

Hawks trounce Patriots for shot at seventh consecutive title

Posted

After the final horn sounded, the Hendricken football team casually strolled onto the field following business as usual.

There was little celebration and fanfare, as the journey was nowhere near finished.

It’s been the common theme to the program for the past decade to win in the semifinals and pencil in a Super Bowl date for the first Saturday in December. This year is no anomaly for the squad that has hoisted the championship trophy six years in a row.

Hendricken crushed Portsmouth, 47-27, taking control in the opening minutes to secure an unprecedented eighth consecutive title game appearance. Senior running back Matt DiTondo gashed Portsmouth to the tune of 168 yards on the ground to go with three touchdowns.

“It was just good blocking by our offensive line,” DiTondo said. “The holes were pretty big. I just kind of hit it and ran through it and scored.”

The Hawks seized momentum on the opening kickoff. Junior kick returner Devin Rivet received the ball at his own 12 and found a seam down the left sideline. Strong blocking led the way to an 88-yard touchdown that gave the Hawks a 7-0 lead just 15 seconds into the game.

Special teams would come through again a few plays later. Hendricken’s defense forced a three-and-out, and DiTondo took the ensuing punt back to the Portsmouth 15-yard line. He cut the right edge on the first play of the drive, coasting to his first score of the night. The Hawks, who haven’t lost since 2014, held a 14-0 advantage with less than two minutes taken off the clock.

“Our offensive line does a good job executing the plays,” DiTondo said. “We have really good offensive line coaches and that helps out a lot.”

The Patriots would perform damage control the rest of the quarter, keeping the Hawks from putting the game away early. John Roche took an end-around from six yards out and broke a few tackles on his way to a touchdown. Sean Coyne, who set the state record this season with a 58-yard field goal, had an uncharacteristic slip on the extra point to keep it 14-6.

“Portsmouth battled tonight,” Hendricken head coach Keith Croft said. “The score is deceiving, those kids played great. That was a big turnaround from the regular-season game for them.”

Whatever steam Portsmouth gained on that eight-play drive, DiTondo suppressed it quickly.

On the first play of the next series, DiTondo darted up the middle virtually untouched for a 69-yard scoring run.

Hendricken rolled out its secret weapon later in the quarter to effectively put the Patriots down for good. Kwity Paye, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound All-American, came in at fullback and broke off runs of 22 and 26 yards, the latter going for a touchdown to make it 27-6.

“He was ready to go last week [against Barrington], I held him out and I thought he ran the ball tonight the best we’ve seen all year,” Croft said of Paye, who suffered a concussion against La Salle earlier this season. “He was aggressive, he was physical, so real happy with the way he ran tonight.”

The Hawks got the ball back with 2:56 left in the first half and notched another score for good measure. The march took just three plays and culminated with senior quarterback Chris Hindle finding wide receiver Tim Picard across the middle for a 32-yard catch to extend the lead out to 33-6.

DiTondo and Paye each rushed for another touchdown in the second half to build the Hendricken cushion to 34 points in the third quarter. The Patriots would chip away, but the clock ran out on a significant comeback attempt.

The Hawks’ recurring opponent in the Super Bowl has also become predictable. Hendricken will tangle with La Salle for the fifth time in the last six years with the state title on the line.

“It’s just pure adrenaline,” Croft said of the meetings with La Salle. “It’s the most physically fast game that you play all year long and it gets revved up for the Super Bowl. It’s going to be a real fun couple weeks getting ready.”

Hendricken defeated La Salle, 27-14, in their annual regular-season game on Nov. 4 in Providence and captured the Super Bowl at the Rams’ expense last year, 24-20.

Though the Hawks have dominated the rivalry lately, DiTondo said that it never loses its emotion.

“We would rather play La Salle,” DiTondo said. “It’s good competition, there’s going to be a lot of fans there. Hopefully bring home that seventh title.”

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