| The Milford Daily News
CONCORD — Dec. 6, 2019 was the last time that the Lincoln-Sudbury football team had played a game.
It was the Div. 2 State Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium, a 41-0 loss to Mansfield.
Just over 15 months later, the Warriors were back on the gridiron and dominated Concord-Carlisle in a 33-0 victory over the Patriots.
“Obviously last year left a bad taste in our mouth,” said L-S quarterback Riley O’Connell of last year’s Super Bowl loss. “You get embarrassed at Gillette its tough so obviously we want to come out and make a statement.”
And quite the statement the Warriors made on both sides of the ball.
On defense L-S held C-C to just 136 yards of total offense.
“Some of our big time players made some big time plays,” Warriors head coach Jim Girard said. “That’s kind of how it goes.”
The Lincoln-Sudbury defense was stout in the first half holding Concord-Carlisle to just one first down in the first two quarters and forced two turnovers in the game. An interception by Jesse McCullough in the second quarter and a strip sack in the fourth quarter that was recovered by sophomore Matt Pendergast which led to the game’s final score.
The big turning point however came on a goal line stand in the third quarter.
With the score 21-0, the Patriots began the second half with a 19-play, nine minute and 25 second drive that stalled at the Warriors’ 3-yard line.
“The best thing as a coaching staff was that goal line stand because that could have easily swung the tide,” Girard said. “They had momentum, they were out-physicaling us at that point and they had some guys make some plays.”
“That was huge, we knew that we had to make that stop,” O’Connell said. “We couldn’t get stopped twice at the end of the first half and let them come down and score and let them get the momentum.
“That was huge to get the momentum back on our side.”
Lincoln-Sudbury then responded with an 11-play, 97 yard touchdown drive of their own to extend its lead to 27-0 with 8:23 left in the fourth quarter — essentially putting the game out of reach.
For O’Connell, after spending most of last year on the sidelined injured — watching friend Collin Murphy lead the Warriors to a Super Bowl appearance — was glad to finally get back out on the field.
“It feels great to get back out here,” O’Connell said. “My teammates, it’s all to them. My line did a great job blocking up front, our receivers ran great routes, it felt great honestly.
“The worst thing that can happen to an athlete obviously is getting injured so it felt great coming out here and being able to play again.”
O’Connell scored three total touchdowns, one passing and two rushing. He was 10-for-18 passing, throwing for 132 yards — his final pass a 21-yard touchdown toss to junior Nate Allor. The quarterback also carried the ball six times for 31 yards.
“I wouldn’t want anybody else running our QB,” said Murphy of O’Connell. “He is so much better than me, he’s just a leader all-around, throws a better ball, I just love this kid. I push him, he pushes me, we just make each other better.
“There is nothing better than giving the ball to him and just watching him throw and score,” Murphy added. “It’s honestly the best feeling ever.”
For Girard, O’Connell did everything that he expected of his quarterback.
“He is so composed and poised and he is very mature and he’s a gamer,” Girard said. “He just has such command of our offense and such a great understanding of what we do and has wonderful chemistry with his skill guys out here and it’s obvious, even on broken plays, they just have a sense and that really goes to their offseason preparation, they get a sense of who the other person is and they really work well together.”
The Warriors scored a touchdown on each of their first three offensive possessions. Gordon Gozdeck got the scoring started capping the opening drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.
O’Connell then scored the first of two rushing touchdowns from a yard out to make it 14-0 with 1:16 left in the first quarter. He then capped the scoring in the first half with his second rushing touchdown of the game, this time from five yards out.
Murphy finished the scoring with a 17-yard touchdown run with 4:30 left in the game.
Ethan Winter is a senior multimedia sports journalist at the Daily News. He can be reached at ewinter@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @EWints.