By Jake Klein
NEFJ Correspondent
MARION – Buckingham Browne & Nichols head coach Mike Willey didn’t give team game ball honors to Bo MacCormack — his star running back — a single time this season.
“He probably deserved a few,” the head coach said. “But, I was saving it for the very last game.”
MacCormack certainly saved his best performance of the year for last. The junior rushed for 424 yards and eight touchdowns and added a 49-yard touchdown pass and a defensive interception, leading his team to a 63-43 victory over Tabor Academy in the John Papas Bowl.
The visitors from Cambridge got out to an early 14-0 lead at Duffy Field in Marion, thanks to a pair of touchdowns by, well, MacCormack.
Tabor’s high-powered offense, which averaged more than 35 points per game during the regular season, took a drive or two to fall into form, but announced its presence in a big way when it scored twice in a span of 47 seconds to take a 15-14 lead. The Seawolves’ first touchdown came on a double reverse pass from tight end Liam Hubacz to quarterback Tim Bengston, then Bengston connected with wideout Dameer Phifer for a longball touchdown after an onside kick recovery.
“You’re not going to stop them,” Willey said of Tabor’s offense. “But you can try to slow them down a little bit.”
From there, a pattern emerged that lasted nearly the rest of the game: BB&N pushed itself down the field with an overdose of MacCormack, then Tabor answered with a more balanced offensive attack. When MacCormack plowed over a defender to put BB&N up 22-15, Tabor answered with Bengston’s deep-ball touchdown pass to freshman Kaiden Drinkwater. The Knights re-took the lead after MacCormack’s fourth score, but Tabor tied it at 29-apiece when Hugo Djeumeni — the Tabor running back with a 400-yard, seven-touchdown performance of his own this year — scored from 13 yards out.
On the ensuing drive, the Knights stunned the home crowd when MacCormack came up throwing after an outside pitch. The runner-turned-thrower connected with wideout Vince Snoonian for a 49-yard touchdown, leaving Tabor with less than a minute to tie the game before the half. Because the Seawolves would receive the second half kickoff, a touchdown before the break would’ve assured them a chance to flip the script and force the Knights to play from behind.
Drinkwater’s long catch-and-run and a 27-yard scramble by Bengston got Tabor into the red zone, but Bengston’s final throw of the half was intercepted. As a result, the start of the second half was more of the same: Tabor tying the game, then BB&N pulling away again.
Djeumeni took an 11-yard pass out of the backfield for the game-tying score, but MacCormick took it right back. Tabor tied it again, this time at 43-43, when Bengston scampered 14 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the fourth quarter. That was all Tabor would get offensively. On its next two drives Djeumeni and Hubacz lost fumbled, and the Knights capitalized to pull away.
“That turned the tide.” Willey said of his defense’s late takeaways.
As the game bore on, MacCormack only seemed to get stronger. His second half performance may have eclipsed his first half numbers, if not for the Knights taking their foot off the gas in the final minutes.
“When you run the ball 40 times a game, it’s hard on your body, but he answers the bell every single week,” MacCormack’s head coach said of the ISL MVP. “We knew there was no tomorrow, so we let him run all day.”
BB&N qualified for a NEPSAC Bowl in six of the last seven years, but hadn’t emerged victorious in postseason play since the 2018 season. In 2021, the Knights suffered a blowout bowl loss to Avon Old Farms. The next year, they were edged by St. Paul’s. That all changed today.
“Getting over the hump is special,” Willey said postgame. “But it doesn’t happen by accident.”
“We came in here and we knew we had to make it happen.” MacCormack said.
And the star junior finally gets his game ball after all.