By Tom O’Brien
NEFJ Correspondant
NORTH ATTLEBORO – King Philip and North Attleboro is a game of tradition.
Two Hockomock rivals with a lot of history between them.
In a renewal of the rivalry on Friday night, the game lived up to the hype as it usually does.
In the end, it was the Warriors winning 21-7 with the usual KP formula: stout defense and a powerful run game.
“I missed playing them last year. This is the type of game and atmosphere, no other town has more pride and tradition in their town than North does,” said KP head coach Brian Lee. “So, playing these kids who grew up here and defending their hometown honor, you’re gonna get their best effort, which is what you want to see, which is why playing North is special to me.”
The Rocketeers had possession of the ball to open the game, but the drive ended with the Warriors’ Dylan Quinn intercepting the ball midway through the first quarter.
Soon thereafter, Nathan Rivera recovered a KP fumble only a few plays into the Warriors’ first drive.
Two plays into North Attleboro’s second drive, the Rocketeers had another turnover as Liam McGrath recovered a fumble for the Warriors.
Senior running back Tallan King opened the second quarter with a big run to jump start the Warriors offense. That eventually led to a score from classmate Keigan Canto-Osorio to go up 7-0 midway through the second quarter.
“We started out slow. They were killing us the whole first half. Everyone was down, but during the second half we all got together and brought the energy back up and came out strong. We kept our hopes high, still pushed and ran the ball strong, and came out with a win,” said King.
North took little time to respond, as Frankie Strachan had a big run to set the Rocketeers up inside the red zone. On his next carry, Strachan found the end zone to knot things up at 7-7 at the half.
Turnover issues continued for King Philip to start the second half with a fumble on the first offensive snap.
The Warriors’ defense answered the call though and turned North over on downs. On the next KP drive, Osorio caught a screen pass for a big gain and soon ran it in to make it 14-7 midway through the third quarter. North started moving the ball on the next drive, but threw another interception, this time to Conner MacDonald.
The Warriors went three-and-out on the next drive, but North got another good offensive drive going, working inside the 10, but the KP defense came up big again and North failed to convert on fourth-and-goal.
Midway through the fourth quarter, King had another huge touchdown run to push it to 21-7.
“He’s a freakin dude. He’s a special kinda guy. He’s a workhorse. He’s tough and a great kid. He’s all the things you want in a player and we’re happy to have him,” said Lee.
“First run got it going down the sideline and it felt great, but all the penalties started bringing us down, so to bring the team up, I put the team on my back and went and scored,” added King.
While KP has won ugly the first two weeks of the season, beating North always means a little more.
“Always growing up, we never beat North Attleboro, we always lost to them in the playoffs, so for the senior group, it’s a huge win for them. It’s the first time we’ve ever beat them for our grade. So it’s always a big rivalry with them,” acknowledged King.
“Just very pleased with the response playing a very tough, very physical North team and how we got after it. You wanna show up with your dudes. Our guys showed up, they played hard and I was very pleased with them,” said Lee.
