'They made the plays': Grafton drives late, outlasts previously unbeaten Doherty in final minute

GRAFTON — The Grafton High football team has been in some close contests this season, and the end results weren’t favorable.

The Gators lost by a point to South after they were unable to protect a fourth-quarter lead in Week 2 and to Holliston by two points after a double-digit halftime lead slipped away last weekend.

But rather than dwell on what might have been, they focused on correcting and learning from what ailed them.

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“We’ve always prided ourselves on toughness,” senior captain Nick St. George said. “We’ve been in this situation, had the South loss and the loss last week to Holliston. We didn’t seem to make plays at the end, got sloppy and lazy, and we really emphasized that in practice.”

The Gators displayed reams of resilience Friday night, capping a six-play, 60-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass from junior backup quarterback Jon Peeler to senior captain Wesley Williams with 48 seconds to play to rally for a 14-8 win over Doherty at Richard Egsegian Memorial Athletic Field.

“It’s a great win,” coach Chris McMahon said after the Gators, ranked fourth in the T&G Super 7 large schools poll, improved to 3-2. “It feels great to win this game.

“I’m really proud of the kids, proud of the assistant coaches. It was intense, physical — a great high school football game.”

The third-ranked Highlanders (4-1) went up, 8-7, when junior quarterback Josh Romeo laid up a beautiful ball that wide-open senior receiver Juan Reynolds ran under down the right side for a 38-yard touchdown pass to cap a 10-play, 95-yard drive with 1:33 to play. Romeo then rushed for the conversion.

But on the Gators’ winning drive, the Highlanders committed two penalties, offsides and taunting, with the latter leading to a first-and-10 at the 15 that contributed mightily to their undoing.

“It was just a really hard-fought football game,” coach Sean Mulcahy said. “We lost our poise at the end and got a penalty that was a tough one to take, but it is what it is. We have to be smarter than that.

“And we didn’t come up defensively when we needed to. That’s the bottom line. … But give credit to them. They made the plays and drove down the field when they needed to.”

Needless to say, the biggest play was Williams two-footed, toe-dragging TD reception at the left pylon. Video showed the ball coming loose as his momentum took him to the turf.

McMahon declined comment on the play. Mulcahy put the focus on his team.

“It was a touchdown, I guess, but we have to be in a situation where they can’t make that play on us,” Mulcahy said. “We let them get down where they threatened us.”

While it was a furious finish, offense was in short supply for both teams — each of which saw a 16-play drive end on a failed fourth-down attempt in the first half — before sophomore running back Finn Gilmore raced 43 yards up the middle for a touchdown against an 11-in-the-box D, and Jameson Mello converted the first of two extra points to make it 7-0 with 2:38 left in the third.

The Gators finished with 179 yards of offense, with junior running back Griffin Landry accounting for 88 yards and six of his team’s 10 first downs on 10 carries.

Peeler, making his first varsity start with senior Jake Mayerhouser out with a concussion, was 3-of-6 passing for 40 yards and was sacked twice, but the three completions came on the winning drive, with two good for first downs and the last for a TD.

“To lead us on that drive, for a kid who had four days of practice, and that’s it, it just shows what kind of kids we have in our program,” McMahon said. “To do what he did there, that’s special.”

The Highlanders totaled 287 yards. Their run game had zero traction (15 carries, 24 yards), but Romeo was 21 of 36 passing for 293 yards, a TD and 10 additional first downs.

Five receivers were involved with juniors Isaiah Birchett (9 catches, 80 yards), James Hanna (4, 44) sophomore Ryan Dennis (4, 77) and Reynolds seeing (5, 87) heavy volume.

Yet, for all the completions, the Gators did an excellent job of pressuring Romeo and forcing him off his spot and into a number of throwaway balls with four passes deflected.

Junior linebacker Brendan McMahon and senior lineman Riley McCann, who was nearly unblockable, both recorded sacks while junior lineman Austin McCormick also made himself at home in the backfield.

“We knew we had to get a pass rush so they wouldn’t throw it all over us,” McCann said. We had to pressure him.”

—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Grafton overtakes previously unbeaten Doherty in final minute