NATICK – Heading into a mid-season showdown with Natick on Friday night, King Philip head coach Brian Lee still wasn’t sure what type of team he had this season.
The Warriors and Redhawks both entered 4-0. King Philip has had a historic run of success in the last decade, but something’s felt different this year. The Warriors had only given up 19 points before Friday, but had to grind out three of its first four wins. Natick came in having given up 20 points while blowing out its first four opponents.
By exactly 8:00 on Friday night, Lee learned he’s still got an old school football team built on running the ball and playing defense in a rugged 23-21 win.
“It’s been funny, I’m not sure who we are,” Lee said postgame. “I was telling our guys, we’ve had a lot of talent the last couple years and so, I think we thought we were supposed to win by out-talenting everybody. So, I didn’t know how tough we were. We’re trying to figure that out. I think they’re starting to come along and grind, you know?”
A 37-yard touchdown pass from Zach Gebhard (6-6, 123 yards, 3 TDs) to running back Kyle Danson on fourth down and a two-point pass from running back Keigan Canto-Osorio to tight end Brodie McDonald made it 23-7 Warriors with 3:47 left in the third. That followed a strip sack by McDonald and recovery by Jacoby Kennedy to halt an eight-play Natick drive to open the third quarter.
The Redhawks battled back and Brandon Leshinski hauled in a 35-yard touchdown on beautiful ball by Matt Caissie while getting crunched. Jack Showstead added a two-point run to make it 23-15 heading to the fourth.
On the ensuing drive, KP was stopped on 3rd-&-1 at its own 43 with just under eight minutes left. Lining up to go for it on fourth down, the Warriors had a false start and had to punt. Just three plays later, Natick was within two as Caissie hit Leshinski down the left sideline for a 70-yard TD with 7:00 remaining, but the Warriors stopped the two-point attempt.
Natick never saw the ball again.
Tallan King (15/74), Canto-Osorio (15/72), Danson (5/31), Ryan Greenwood (7/21) and Gebhard (3/3) killed the remaining clock, including a big 3rd-&-4 run by Greenwood for a first down at the Natick 23 with 2:20 left that ultimately sealed the deal. The Warriors took one final victory formation knee at the one-yard line before starting to celebrate.
“It’d be cool to like, throw it all over the place. I think people like that instead of running dives and whatnot, but you lean on what you have and what’s been successful for you and that’s what we have to do,” said Lee of his running game.
“They (the touchdowns) were a couple plays we’ve had in for a while, just really haven’t had the chance to run them,: said Gebhard. “We ran them a bunch during practice and it worked.”
KP fumbled three snaps into the game with Natick recovering right around the Warriors’ 20. Natick had to settle for a short field goal attempt by Brayden Lewis and he missed it, but roughing the kicker was called. Two plays later. Showstead punched it in from two-yards out and Lewis added the point after.
The Redhawk defense forced a turnover on downs on the ensuing KP possession thanks to a fourth down sack by Mike Whalen. The Redhawks went three-and-out and KP got on the board early in the second on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Gebhard to Connor McDonald who was wide open on the back side, something KP exploited for each of it’s touchdowns. Canto-Osorio added a two-point run.
The Warriors went up 15-7 with 1:05 left in the second on a 32-yard TD catch and run by Danson on 3rd-&-7. Nate Crowley booted the extra point. Two big completions by Caissie over the middle to Joe MacDonnell quickly got Natick down to the KP 20 in the closing seconds of the half, but Liam King had a sack to send the team’s to the locker room with KP up by eight.
“We felt comfortable the whole game,” added Gebhard. “We were up. We knew we had it. They scored, but they still had to get some two point conversions, so that helped…this was definitely the best team we’ve played so far.
“It meant a lot to our coaches and the whole team just to show that we can still compete with bigger schools. We’re in D3 now and (Natick) is in D1. It meant a lot.”
