| AHS Football News Room |
Members of the Attleboro High School football team celebrate their thrilling, last-minute victory over Bridgewater-Raynham on Friday night. (Staff photo by Tom Maguire) Bombardiers rally past B-R
BY MARK FARINELLA SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Members of the Attleboro High School football team celebrate their thrilling, last-minute victory over Bridgewater-Raynham on Friday night. (Staff photo by Tom Maguire) Bombardiers rally past B-R ATTLEBORO - It took a truly amazing finish to keep a memorable season on track. A high punt snap and Matty Campbell's 14-yard return of the recovery with 42 seconds left to play propelled the undefeated Attleboro High School football team to a thrilling, 26-21 verdict over Bridgewater-Raynham in the Old Colony League opener for both teams Friday night. Campbell, the burly junior running back and linebacker, was part an onrushing horde of Blue Bombardiers who saw a miracle in the making at Tozier-Cassidy Field when the punt snap sailed out of the grasp of B-R quarterback and punter Kevin Bumpus, standing near his own 25-yard-line. It skittered away and Attleboro won the race to it. "Maz (linebacker Nick Mazurkiewicz) made a really great hit on that play," Campbell said. "So the ball just came out and I was the one to get it. I was the lucky one." Having already scored two touchdowns, on a 70-yard pass from Mike Barry with 4:34 left in the first quarter and a 1-yard run with 3:22 left in the third, Campbell (124 all-purpose yards) scooped up the ball at the 14 and was not going to be caught, putting the Bombardiers (5-0, 1-0) back in front for the first time since 4:50 left in the first half. But the Trojans (2-4, 0-1) still had life in them, helped in part by a celebration penalty assessed to Attleboro on the Campbell touchdown. Taking over on the Attleboro 45, Bumpus completed a 44-yard prayer to John Dunmore at the AHS 12 and tried to go to him again in the left corner of the end zone, but Attleboro's Mike Reardon swatted the ball away as time expired. "We've all come together as a team," Campbell said. "We're playing together as a family." Attleboro seemed poised to run away with the game from the start, scoring first on Tyler McCarthy's 73-yard sweep around left end just 20 seconds into the game. But the Trojans responded 41/2 minutes later on a pass from Bumpus to Sean Reagan in the right corner of the end zone from 6 yards out, ending an eight-play drive. Barry (8-12, 170 yards, one TD, 137.5 NFL passer rating) found Campbell over the middle just two plays later to put the Bombardiers back in front with 4:34 left, but B-R's Jake Williams (29 carries, 188 yards) broke a draw play for 44 yards with 4:50 left in the half to send the teams into the lockers tied at 14-14. Williams carried on five of the six plays in B-R's half-opening scoring drive, gaining 49 yards including the last 12, off right tackle, for a 21-14 lead. Barry quickly responded, completing passes of 25 and 15 yards to Ryan Araujo to set up Campbell's 1-yard TD run on the ensuing AHS possession, but the Trojans blocked Araujo's PAT to preserve a one-point lead with 3:22 left in the third quarter. McCarthy's interception with 8:31 left in the game gave Attleboro a chance to reclaim the lead, and the Bombardiers drive methodically from their own 25 to the B-R 21. But the drive stalled when a pass interference call on a throw to Araujo was inexplicably waved off on third-and-9 at the 21, then Barry's next throw to him was tipped away by B-R's Mike Chicoine. The Trojans got the ball with 3:17 left and managed one first down, but a curious bootleg call for Bumpus on third-and-6 at the 36 gained just 3 yards, forcing a punt - and the rest was nothing short of miraculous for the Bombardiers. "It's been a long time coming," AHS coach Kevin Deschenes said. "The kids never gave up. That's why we tell them to play 44 minutes of football. We took advantage of an opportunity that they gave us, and we made the most of it." The Campbell recovery and return was Attleboro's third scoop-and-score touchdown of the season. "It's just a first step," said Deschenes. "We've got Taunton coming next week and they're very good. It's going to be a challenge every week we just knew we had to rise to the next level."
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Attleboro HS
Football Archives- Thanksgiving Game 2007![]()
# 7 Tyler McCarthy |
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