H.S. Football: Win puts Dighton-Rehoboth on verge of playoff spot

DIGHTON - The Falcons did all they could Friday afternoon to make the playoffs, but they’ll have to wait until Sunday for the final word.

Dighton-Rehoboth was stellar on offense, defense and special teams in a 55-13 home victory over Fairhaven. The win pushed the Falcons to 2-5 on the season, which will likely be enough to qualify for the MIAA Div. 4 South playoff tournament.

The Falcons came into Friday’s game ranked eighth out of the 11 teams in Div. 4 South with a score of 7.5 on the MIAA power rankings formula, which uses a combination of wins, opponents’ wins and strength of schedule to calculate a rating score. They entered Friday a half point ahead of No. 9 North Quincy, which was 2-4 before losing to Hanover 33-0 Friday night, and a point behind No. 7 Westwood (2-4), which faces 3-3 Medfield on Saturday. The MIAA South Rankings can be found on the right side of the football website.

The top eight teams in each division make the playoffs, so with North Quincy’s loss, the Falcons are likely to at least hold onto the eighth spot and make it to the postseason. While the Falcons only have two wins, the tough South Coast Conference and their out-of-conference schedule early in the season (Canton and Plymouth South) had them with the fourth-toughest schedule in Div. 4 South coming into Friday’s game.

“It’s wait and see for us now,” D-R coach Dave Moura said on the field after Friday’s game. “We came in eighth. We could move up to seven or get bounced out. The fact that we came in at eighth means we have a good shot to hold onto that spot.”

The MIAA will release the final playoff rankings and opponents on Sunday morning with officials meeting to determine seedings at 10 a.m. Should the Falcons make the playoffs, their first-round opponent next weekend will likely be No. 1 Milton (6-0) or a rematch with No. 2 Plymouth South (5-1), which beat D-R 14-3 earlier in the season.

“If we play at the level we’re capable of playing and give a good effort, we’ll see what happens,” Moura said about a possible matchup against one of the top teams in the division. “When you come in as the lower seed there’s not many expectations, not much pressure. It’s just come out, play football and have fun.”

The MIAA will assign opponents for all non-playoff teams for the next few weeks, so should the Falcons not crack the top eight in Div. 4 South on Sunday, they will have three more non-playoff games against opponents to be determined before the annual Thanksgiving rivalry game against Seekonk.

While the Falcons wait for Sunday morning and a playoff announcement, they can celebrate Friday’s first home victory of the season. Fairhaven struck first but the Falcons answered with 41 straight points to take a 41-7 lead into halftime and added two more scores in the second half for a blowout victory. The Falcons scored on offense, defense and special teams in the balanced win.

“I think the kids executed better,” Moura said. “The emphasis this week was on the basic fundamentals of blocking, tackling and running. Back to basics. We kind of got away from that last week (loss to GNB Voc-Tech). Im happy with the whole team, even special teams contributed. It was a three-way contribution, great effort from everyone.”

Jaren Ramos had a 94-yard touchdown and Brady Walsh had two scores of 77 and 10 yards.

A large, vocal crowd was on hand for Senior Night to celebrate the win and cheer on the seniors.

“I’m happy for the seniors,” Moura said of the team’s seven seniors (Marcus Moss, Ishmael Christmas, Aidan Botelho, Ashton Boyle, Miguel Garcia, Evan Gleason and Zach Larrimore). “It was a good win for them. We always get great support from the community and fans.”

Hopefully for the Falcons, the next time the community has a chance to support them is in the playoffs.