Football: Big plays and a thrilling ending at Dighton-Rehoboth

DIGHTON - Football is a game of inches, and Dighton-Rehoboth came up about 6 inches short in Friday afternoon’s 28-27 loss to Old Rochester.

Quarterback John Marcille threw a touchdown pass to Vinny Ruffini with 12.5 seconds left in the game to bring the Falcons within one point in the closing seconds.

Dighton-Rehoboth lined up to kick the extra point to tie the game at 28 but Old Rochester jumped offsides and the play was halted by the officials. The penalty moved the ball on the point-after attempt from the 3-yard line to the 1.5-yard line, and D-R coach Dave Moura sent his offense out for a two-point conversion to try to win the game.

Marcille took the snap from and lunged forward up the middle but was stuffed less than a yard from the goalline as Old Rochester sealed the victory in the closing seconds.

“We have nothing to lose. We play to win, We don’t play to tie,” Moura said after the game on the decision to go for two. “They stopped it, so hats off to (Old Rochester).”

Bulldogs coach Bryce Guilbeault said he would have called the same play, QB up the middle, if he were in that situation.

“We would have done the same thing,” Guilbeault said after the game. “We thought they’d try to go right up the middle so we moved our defensive tackles in and it worked out for us.”

Moura’s decision to put the game in the hands of his offense came after the Falcons’ best offensive performance of the season. D-R totaled almost 400 yards of offense and scored 27 points Friday after totaling just 17 points in the previous three games.

“It’s starting to click now,” Moura said. “They’re getting used to playing with each other and getting game reps. They had a good showing today and it’s good to see some progress.”

The Falcons fell to 0-4 on the season, but Moura said the team has improved a great deal and the best is yet to come.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” he said. “They gave tremendous effort and I think good things will happen to these guys down the road. They get better every week.”

REPORTERTODAY.COM MVP: Receiver Ishmael Christmas broke out in a big way, hauling in six passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. Moura said he had a “great game.”

UNDER CENTER: Marcille had his best game of the season, completing 17 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns. In the second quarter, he hit Christmas for a 44-yard score down the left sideline one play after finding him for a 35-yard completion. Late in the first half, he tossed a 38-yard scoring strike to Brodie Jacques, who hauled in the pass around the 20-yard line and made an ORR defender miss before outsprinting another defender to the endzone. On D-R’s final drive to the endzone, he was successful on fourth down twice, including the last-second score to Ruffini. “I was happy for John,” Moura said. “It was nice to see it come together for him today.”

GUILBEAULT ON THE FALCONS: “D-R is always tough. Coach Moura does a great job preparing those guys to play. They came in 0-3 but played some tough opponents. We’re happy to get out of here with a win.”

BIG PLAYERS MAKE BIG PLAYS: The Falcons had seven plays of 20 yards or more, but the biggest was a 63-yard touchdown run by Jaren Ramos on the opening drive of the second half that gave D-R a 21-14 lead at the time. On a third-and-13 on their own 37-yard line, Marcille handed the ball to a running back heading to the left side of the field, who handed the ball back to Ramos heading right on a reverse. Ramos cut inside them down the right sideline for the score.

MORE ON THE TWO-POINT CONVERSION: Moura said the Falcons planned on trying to draw ORR offsides on the point-after kick late in the game to give them some options. “If the kick was good, we were going to decline the call and take overtime,” he said. “But it would have given us another shot at it, or get the ball a little closer to where we can inch it in.” The referees blew the play dead immediately after an ORR player jumped offsides, so the kick was never attempted.

POLAR OPPOSITES: Marcille threw 34 times as the Falcons passed on 58% of their offensive plays while Old Rochester ran the ball on about 89% of its plays (47 of 53 snaps). ORR running back Jackson Cote had more carries (24) than the entire Falcons team (22). Cote tallied 161 yards on the ground.

QUICK SLANTS: Moura said the Falcons planned to use their quickness to attack ORR’s defense. “We knew they were very big up front so we wanted to attack the perimeter to get the ball downfield more. We took what they gave us.” Guilbeault said D-R had a “great gameplan.” … Andrew Tripanier intercepted ORR quarterback Ryon Thomas in the second quarter, leaping high in the air to come down with the interception. … Guilbeault was a defensive end and tight end on some solid Bishop Stang football teams in the late 90s. His father, Paul, who coaches the ORR freshman team, has coached for many years in the area and is known for not only being a great coach, but for his motivational speeches. … Linebacker Wes McQuillan had a strip sack on Thomas in the third quarter, busting through the ORR offensive line and forcing a fumble. The turnover gave the Falcons the ball at the ORR 20-yard line, but they managed to gain only two yards and turn the ball over on downs on the 18. … Sports scribe Brendan Kurie was covering the game for SouthCoastVarsity.com/@SC_Varsity. He’s known in local journalism circles as not only a great writer and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but someone who has amazing luck finding good feature story ideas at New Bedford High School sporting events. … Friday was Moura’s birthday. … When Moura called the offense back on the field at the end of the game for the two-point conversion, the Falcons bench erupted in cheer. … Dighton-Rehoboth again dazzled with its halftime show with an Aladdin theme. Kudos to Alyson Rego (Princess Jasmine) and Skylar Jones (Aladdin) for the great vocals, and Senior Drum Major Colby Botelho and the rest of the musicians and performers for a great job. Check out some clips of it on our Facebook page, The Reporter, and our Twitter page, @ReporterSports1. … The D-R cheerleaders had plenty of pink going for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. … Senior captain Camden Brezinski scored three touchdowns for the Bulldogs, two receiving and one on the ground. … Adam Pereira (three) and Thomas (four) combined to go 7-for-7 on extra-point kicks.

UP NEXT: Dighton-Rehoboth (0-4) will be on the road next Friday for a matchup with Apponequet at 4 p.m. The Lakers are 3-0 heading into Saturday’s game against GNB Voc-Tech. … Old Rochester (3-1) will face Somerset Berkley next Saturday at noon.

OLD ROCHESTER 28, DIGHTON-REHOBOTH 27
Old Rochester 0 14 7 7-28
Dighton-Rehoboth 0 14 7 6-27
Scoring
Second Quarter
OR: Camden Brezinski 2 run (Ryon Thomas kick), 8:25
DR: Ishmael Christmas 44 pass from John Marcille (Adam Pereira kick), 7:11
OR: Camden Brezinski 4 pass from Ryon Thomas (Ryon Thomas kick), 3:02
DR: Brodie Jacques 38 pass from John Marcille (Adam Pereira kick), 1:23
Third Quarter
DR: Jaren Ramos 63 run (Adam Pereira kick), 10:34
OR: Dylan DeWolfe 3 run (Ryon Thomas kick), 3:11
Fourth Quarter
OR: Camden Brezinski 5 pass from Ryon Thomas (Ryon Thomas kick), 1:49
DR: Vinny Ruffini 5 pass from John Marcille (run failed), 12.5
Statistics
Rushing: OR - Jackson Cote 24-161, Dylan DeWolfe 5-23, Camden Brezinski 8-28, Ryon Thomas 9-55, Jayven Pina Francis 1-(-4); DR - Jaren Ramos 7-101, Aiden Botelho6-(-8), John Marcille 3-13, Brady Walsh 6-44.
Passing: OR - Ryon Thomas 5-6-57-2-1; DR - John Marcille 17-34-269-3-3.
Receiving: OR - Dylon Thomas 3-48, Camden Brezinski 2-9; DR - Ishmael Christmas 6-129, Aiden Botelho 2-20, Brady Walsh 2-7, Wes McQuillan 1-28, Jaren Ramos 2-21, Vinny Ruffini 1-5, Brodie Jacques 3-59.