Spirited defensive effort powers much-improved Norwell High football past Middleboro
NORWELL – Even watching a handful of snaps illustrates just how far the Norwell High football team has come in one year's time.
Or, if you haven't been out to a game (yet), a quick scan up and down the senior-heavy roster and an audit on its game-by-game results will also do the trick.
At this point last year, Norwell suffered a 35-0 loss to Middleboro at the Sachems' house: “It could’ve been worse," Norwell coach John Willis said with a chuckle. "They were nice to us.” Norwell finished last fall with a 3-8 record.
Friday night, Willis' defense pitched a shutout for three quarters as the revitalized Clippers rolled to a 34-13 win over Middleboro to improve to 5-1 on the season. It marks Norwell's first win over the Sachems (4-2) since 2019.
“It’s not last year. It’s this year," senior lineman Carter Rae said. "We’ve been in the weight room. That was a big emphasis. We woke up at like 5:30 every morning in the offseason so we can get after it out here.”
Rae captained a defensive effort that forced two turnovers on downs and baited Middleboro into throwing three interceptions. The Sachems got their first score at the 8:40 mark of the fourth quarter as Ryan Dibona reeled in an impressive throw from substitute quarterback Brett Kowalker for a 36-yard TD. Norwell led 21-7 at that point.
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Seniors Jackson Adams, Connor O'Hare and Ryan Luccarelli came up with the interceptions for Norwell, and senior Connor Cronk scored a 58-yard TD on a mishandled punt return by the Middleboro special teams unit in the first quarter. Junior lineman Dante Tordigilone Jr., senior linebacker Connor Foster, senior linebacker Ben Belisle, senior linebacker Jake Touhey and junior defensive back Andrew Lazcano also shined bright.
“That's the strong suit of the team,” Rae said. “Defensive line, the secondary, our safeties – all really good.”
“A lot of guys played well," Willis said. "(Middleboro's) quarterback’s dynamic, the running back is good and they can throw the ball a little bit. Across the board, there was no real stick out (emphasis) for us. Just play consistent and we played well.”
Freshman quarterback Jack Luccarelli completed 8-of-11 passes for 137 yards and one TD (a 33-yard strike to his older brother Ryan in the second quarter), and junior running back Will Bostrom rushed 15 times for an unofficial total of 162 yards and 1 TD in the win. Bostrom ran for chunk plays of 55 and 20 yards, respectively, but his highlight was making multiple cuts to wiggle between defenders en route to a 37-yard TD that inflated Norwell's cushion to 28-7 with 6:02 to play.
Last week, the Clippers saw a 21-7 second-half lead disappear as league rival Rockland mounted a two-score comeback to win, 23-21, on a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. Flash-forward to Friday, no late lead was lost.
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"We haven't been in situations like that the last few years," Willis said of the Rockland loss. "How you handle those types of things, we talked about that all week long and worked on it in practice. We kept our poise and did a nice job in the second half (tonight)."
Norwell finishes the regular season with a pair of road games – at Sandwich (next Friday, 6 p.m.) and at East Bridgewater (Oct. 27, 7 p.m.). This isn't the same bunch that finished with five more losses than wins last fall.
“We were young last year. We were young the year before that. We had a lot of sophomores playing two years ago. The kids and coaching staff have worked really hard,” Willis said. “On paper, we looked good coming back but you’ve got to go out and play. We’ve matured a little bit. I like the direction we’re heading in.”
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Team-wide defensive effort powers Norwell football past Middleboro
