Old Rochester has no answers for Dartmouth's balanced offensive attack
MATTAPOISETT — With his team crowded around him following a 32-14 win over Old Rochester on Friday night, Dartmouth head coach Rick White proclaimed, “We’re not a one-person team.”
He’s right.
Dartmouth is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2021 thanks to a balanced offensive attack that has kept teams off balance through the first three weeks of 2023.
“They’ve got a ton of dynamic athletes on offense,” said Old Rochester head coach Bryce Guilbeault. “They make you cover the whole field — sideline to sideline and end zone to end zone. They’re capable of either running it or throwing it. If you don’t take one of them away, now they’ve got you off balance. Hats off to them. Those kids played great and their coaches outcoached us.”
Against the Bulldogs, Dartmouth had 342 yards of total offense with 167 coming through the air and 175 on the ground.
“We’re a solid all-around team,” said Dartmouth junior quarterback Jackson Hart. “There are a lot of people that can do a lot of different things to help us win.
“We’re definitely not a one-person team. It takes all of us together to be able to win these games. The potential is through the roof, but we’ve still got to get better.”
Hart picked apart Old Rochester’s defense, completing 6 of 7 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns — a 67-yard strike to Donovan Burgo and a 44-yard pass to Markus Andrews.
“We made some big plays on offense,” White said. “We were able to get some passes behind them fortunately. We got one to Donovan and one to Markus and that opened up the game right there.
“Jackson did a nice job. He started putting some good drives together and made some good reads on the touchdown drives. He did a nice job throwing the ball and running tonight. He did both.”
Hart carried the ball 10 times for 58 yards and scored on a 37-yard scamper. Junior running back Ray Gramlich was tough to bring down in the run game as he carried the ball 16 times for 106 yards and scored a touchdown.
Andrews said he isn’t surprised with the team’s success because Dartmouth’s players share something special this year.
“We’re really close,” he said. “We’re all best friends. I think our chemistry is what’s pushing us to be great. We all want to be great and we all want to see each other succeed. We’re playing the best we can because we’re doing it for each other and not for ourselves.”
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HOW IT HAPPENED
After a scoreless first quarter, Dartmouth got on the scoreboard with a 35-yard field goal by senior Louie Freitas to go ahead 3-0 with 11:52 left in the second quarter.
Hart then connected on back-to-back scoring strikes to Burgo and Andrews to extend Dartmouth’s lead to 16-0 with 2:33 in the first half.
Freitas knocked down his second field goal of the game and third of the season from 32 yards out as the clock expired in the first half to send Dartmouth into the intermission ahead 19-0.
Gramlich scored on a 1-yard run to make it 25-0 midway through the third quarter and Old Rochester answered with the first of two touchdown runs in the game by junior quarterback Gavin Martin.
Hart added a rushing touchdown with less than a minute left in the third.
Martin, who led Old Rochester with 108 yards on 18 carries, scored on runs of 18 and 21 yards.
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WHAT IT MEANS
With the win, Dartmouth improves to 3-0 and will host Apponequet (1-2) on Friday night. … The loss drops Old Rochester to 1-2. The Bulldogs will host GNB Voc-Tech on Friday night.
SOUTHCOAST PLAYER OF THE GAME
Hart had a hand in three out of Dartmouth’s four touchdowns, throwing for a pair and rushing for another.
COACH’S CORNER
“I thought we played pretty good up front. They had some big boys on their offensive line and the quarterback is very skilled. Their backs made us nervous this week, watching them on film. They have good skilled guys and they were big up front so we didn’t know what to expect. I thought our defense did a nice job.” — White
“Right now we’re not playing complementary football. When the defense is getting going, the offense isn’t doing their part and when the offense is going, the defense isn’t doing their part. We’re consistently inconsistent right now.” — Guilbeault
NOTES
Senior Jason Martin, who was celebrating his 18th birthday on Friday, recovered one of two fumbles for Dartmouth. Junior Tom Quinn had the other. “Offensively, penalties and turnovers have been an issue,” Guilbeault said. “You can’t win many high school football games having penalties and turning the ball over. We’ve got to get better.” ... Members of New Bedford High's coaching staff as in attendance.
DARTMOUTH 32, OLD ROCHESTER 14
DARTMOUTH;0;19;13;0 — 32
OLD ROCHESTER;0;0;7;7 — 14
Scoring
First Quarter
None
Second Quarter
D: Louie Freitas 35 field goal (11:52)
D: Donovan Burgo 67 pass from Jackson Hart (Louie Freitas kick), 4:40
D: Markus Andrews 44 pass from Jackson Hart (run failed), 2:33
D: Louie Freitas 32 field goal, 0:00
Third Quarter
D: Ray Gramlich 1 run (kick failed), 6:18
ORR: Gavin Martin 18 run (Remy Wilson kick), 1:54
D: Jackson Hart 37 run (Louie Freitas kick), :26
Fourth Quarter
ORR: Gavin Martin 21 run (Remy Wilson kick), 3:46
Individual Statistics
Rushing — D: Ray Gramlich 16-102-1, Jackson Hart 10-58-1, Markus Andrews 5-13, Johan Johnson 1-2; ORR: Mateo Pina 9-51, Gavin Martin 18-108-2, Devin St. Germaine 3-19, Jack Laconte 7-50, Cameron Pepin 1-(-1).
Passing — D: Jackson Hart 6-7-144-2, Aidan Gendron 1-1-23; ORR: Gavin Martin 8-13-84.
Receiving — D: Donovan Burgo 4-99-1, Markus Andrews 2-54-1, Aidan Gendron 1-14; ORR: Devin St. Germaine 2-19, Jake Proffit 5-46, Remy Wilson 3-19.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Dartmouth High football beats Old Rochester for third win of 2023
