BROOKLINE – On a picturesque Friday night for football up on the hill in Brookline, Dexter Southfield opened its season by winning ugly.
With a hillside full of fans donning white clothing for a ‘white out,’ Dexter’s offense struggled in the first half, but quarterback Rory Funke’s three rushing touchdowns and 150 total yards was enough for a 21-6 win over Suffield Academy.
That’s also because the defense put on a clinic after the first quarter, giving up just 53 yards in the final 36 minutes.
“I think our defense really stepped up,” said DXSF head coach Casey Day. “That time of year where offense is still trying to fire on all cylinders. Couple penalties, few setbacks that got us behind the chains a little bit and our defense bailed us out at times.”
“They won us this game,” Funke said of the offensive line. “They toughened up. They made adjustments at half…we’ve never seen this front. We didn’t prepare for it in preseason. They’ve got a whole new defense. We made adjustments. I’m proud of my guys. We played smart…really tough win. Our defense helped me out a lot too.
“We’ve got a lot to improve on, but I’m proud of what we showed.”
DXSF trailed 6-2 after an odd first quarter. The offense went three-and-out to open the game, but got a turnover on downs at its own 27 on the first Tigers drive. Senior running back and Illinois commit Kayden Bennett had difficulty finding much room all night with the DXSF defense swarming to the ball, but he did have a big 3rd-&-3 run on the drive. A deep ball from quarterback Zach McKenzie to Finn Bjork on another third down extended the series, but a sack on 4th-&-11 by Edem Kplorfia halted things.
Dexter Southfield let Steven Joseph do his thing on the ground on the ensuing series, but he was stuffed for a three-yard loss on third down at the DXSF 45, forcing a punt. The snap was high, fumbled and eventually, Suffield took over at the DXSF 30. One play later, McKenzie threw a dart on a post to Luke Pappas for a 30-yard TD. The extra point was botched and Michael Thomas took it back for a two-point scoop-and-score at the end of the first.
“One of those sneaky plays that maybe kind of gets lost in the mix when it’s all said and done,” Day said of the two-point swing. “That was a huge momentum play for us.”
Early in the second another turnover on downs for the DXSF defense at their own 28 (thanks to a 4th-&-6 stop) soon led to a five-yard touchdown run by Funke. The TD run was set up by a 33-yard pass to Braxton Day down the right sideline. Funke hit a cool looking jump pass to Gavin Marzouki for two, but it was negated by an illegal man downfield call. There was also a mini scrum after as things got chippy before Funke ultimately missed the PAT attempt.
Each team punted twice the rest of the quarter, with Daniel Hanafin intercepting a deep pass attempt from McKenzie to close out the half with DXSF up 8-6.
“I think we decided that was going to come down to heart,” Funke said when asked what the talk was at halftime. “Our guys really toughened up.”
Momentum shifted for good less than five minutes into the third quarter.
The host defense forced an immediate three-and-out and Suffield had a high snap. Meanwhile, DXSF crashed the left side and prevented a punt from getting off, laying the wood and setting up the offense at the Tigers’ 15. After a false start, Funke rumbled in from 17-yards out a snap later to make it 14-6 after again missing the PAT.
“Our special teams coordinator got the guys together at halftime and based on the first couple punts they had, it was a little bit of a rugby style punt where he was getting really close to the line of scrimmage. We felt like we could make a play there,” explained Day. “That was another one of those sneaky plays that ended up to be a huge, huge play that might not show up in the box score.”
A big punt return from Charles Hanafin on the ensuing possession set up DXSF at the Suffield 45. The offense took advantage of the opportunity, with Funke scoring from five yards out in the final 35 seconds of the quarter. He hit the PAT this time as well to make it 21-6.
It felt as if both teams knew the outcome was already decided with 12 minutes still remaining and both offense struggled to get much going before Funke had one more third down conversion and a kneel down to close things out.
“The guys up front really stepped it up. Once we figured out a couple things here and there, a couple adjustments we had to make and once we made a couple big plays, we started playing with more confidence obviously,” added Day.
