By Tyler Amaral
NEFJ Staff
NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH – North Attleborough dominated from the opening whistle in a 42-8 rout over Taunton in a Hockomock League crossover battle.
North Attleborough won the toss and deferred to the second half. After giving up a quick first down on the game’s first set of downs, the Red Rocketeer defense buckled down and forced a punt.
Then, the North Attleborough offense moved the ball downfield behind a bruising rushing attack.
Two-way star Ryan Bannon punched in a 4-yard touchdown to give the hosts the lead. North Attleborough would never look back.
“Our offensive line is the best in the Hockomock League” said Bannon. “We got Reid Clemente, Nate Rivera, Chris Bryant, Hayden Mottinger and Patrick Hamilton – they’re the best guys out there.”
North Attleborough forced three more punts on Taunton’s next three possessions.
Each defensive stop led to a North Attleborough touchdown.
Bannon (183 yards from scrimmage, four touchdowns) scored his second touchdown of the game on a 3-yard rush. Then, on the next Red Rocketeer possession, Bannon caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from four-year starting quarterback Chase Frisoli.
After a fourth straight Taunton punt, North Attleborough again picked apart the Taunton defense and Brady Paradis ran in a 6-yard touchdown.
“I gotta give credit to all my backs” and Hamilton. “They’re the ones doing all the hard work and we’re just creating lanes.”
Jeremy Knief took the ensuing squib kick back 65 yards for Taunton’s only touchdown of the game. The Taunton offense never crossed midfield.
“[Shutting down the Taunton offense] was all coaching” said Frankie Strachan. “We executed everything that we practiced. Everyone held their matchups. The secondary played great.”
The second half was more of the same as Paradis and Bannon added rushing touchdowns of 13 and 4 yards, respectively.
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
“Think about all the leadership that we have” said North Attleborough head coach Mike Strachan. “I’m just super proud of how the defense played. They hung in there. I think we did a really good job against the run tonight. And I think we were able to contain their quarterback.”
North Attleborough improves to 3-0 on the season. Taunton drops to 2-1.
