The Kick, Part 2: Rockland football beats Norwell with last-second do-over field goal

ROCKLAND -- Jacob Comman actually kicked two game-winning field goals in the closing seconds Friday night. Only the second one counted, but, hey, all you need is one, right?

The 5-9 Rockland High senior converted from 22 yards out with 4 seconds left, capping a huge second-half rally as the Bulldogs, who were down 14 at intermission, edged Norwell, 23-21, in a battle of unbeaten South Shore League Sullivan Division heavyweights.

"There were (nerves) because the game was on the line," Comman said, "but I knew what I had to do. Everyone was depending on me, and I did what I had to do. I always close my eyes and take a deep breath before every kick. The nerves go all away."

Comman's first attempt, from 27 yards, also went through the uprights. The Bulldogs celebrated wildly but were quickly brought back to earth when the officials announced they had whistled the play dead because Norwell had jumped offsides.

Comman just shrugged and hit the do-over as the execution from long-snapper Joe Earner and holder Josh Benson was perfect again.

"Doing it twice, you just can't think of it," said Comman, who lined up for the kick between home plate and the pitcher's mound in the baseball-infield end of Rockland Memorial Stadium. "If you already did it once, then you can easily do it again. And it was from closer (after the penalty), so it's even easier than last time."

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"Isn't it the worst rule ever?" Rockland coach Nick Liquori said of the stoppage in play. "But whatever. For him to do that and block out all the rest of the nonsense and us celebrating and all that good stuff, for him to be able to do it again, it's huge."

"He's great," said Rockland quarterback Jordan DePina, who was brilliant with two touchdown passes, a TD run and a huge onside kick recovery that fueled a 16-point fourth quarter. "Every day in practice he works hard -- he's kicking over 50 kicks a day. We trust him in that situation to make the kick for us and he did it."

The win sends Rockland to 5-0 and drops Norwell to 4-1. The Bulldogs were 8-3 a year ago, losing in the Division 6 state semifinals. They graduated 17 seniors but look to be a force again, this time in Div. 7. They came into the game No. 6 in the latest MIAA power rankings.

In the joyous postgame huddle, Liquori told his players, "You just put everybody else (in the league) on notice!"

"It means a lot," DePina said of the win. "Battle of undefeateds, to come out and get the win means a lot."

Rockland wouldn't have gotten there without DePina, who rushed for 178 yards and whose fingerprints were all over the comeback. The senior is a first-year starter at QB after being a running back and outside linebacker in 2022.

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"I think the experience that Jordan had a couple of years as a reserve running back gave him that confidence to be that leader when he got out here this year," Liquori said. "Because when you graduate 17 seniors and you're not really sure who to turn to, we all knew that (at least) we were turning to Jordan. We just didn't know what capacity that was going to be in."

DePina had Rockland's lone TD of the first half as he zigzagged in the pocket, buying time to eventually hit Brandon Comeau with a 7-yard TD pass to cut Norwell's lead to 14-7 in the second quarter. The Clippers tacked on a 10-yard Will Bostrom TD run just before halftime to take a 21-7 lead into the break.

Undaunted, the Bulldogs shut the visitors out in the second half and came alive in the fourth quarter, first on DePina's 5-yard TD run that made it 21-14 with 9:37 left and then on DePina's 26-yard TD pass to Comeau down the seam. That brought Rockland within 21-20 with 2:36 left. Liquori went for the 2-point conversion and the lead, but Norwell denied DePina on a run to the right.

No matter. Comman's onside kick, to the right, skimmed off a Norwell player's hands and hit DePina (of course) in stride. The rule says you can't advance an onside recovery, but Rockland had possession again at the Norwell 48.

"There was never a doubt in my mind about what we were going to do when we kicked off," Liquori said. "It was just a matter of who was going to be on the kickoff team. Jordan was beat, but I told him, 'I just need the ball. He's going to kick it right to you.' It worked out pretty well."

Said DePina: "Coach put me out there and told me to go get the ball and I told him I got him. He trusted me to go get it and I went and got it."

Despite repeated pressure from Norwell pass-rusher Connor Cronk that forced two incompletions, DePina made the big play when it mattered most, rolling to his right on third-and-15 from the Clippers' 32 and hitting Tyler Boehner with a 22-yard completion down to the 10.

Two kicks later, Rockland had the lead. Norwell's multi-lateral kickoff return on the game's final play fizzled out, and the Bulldogs celebrated an emotional Homecoming win.

"They outplayed us in the second half," Norwell coach John Willis said. "Their quarterback is a great player. We were chasing him around all night long and he's ad-libbing a little bit. He did a great job. He's the real deal. He was the difference."

Norwell took a 14-0 lead as freshman quarterback Jack Luccarelli hit Jackson Adams with a 17-yard TD pass in the first quarter and then ran in from 7 yards out in the second quarter. Bostom had runs of 18 and 70 yards to key both scoring drives.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Rockland's Comman beats Norwell with field goal in final seconds