By Jared Keene
NEFJ Staff
ATTLEBORO – Make no mistake about it, Bishop Feehan picked the right time to be playing its best football of the season.
Forget for a moment that the Shamrocks have won eight straight after dropping their first game back in week one. Feehan’s last three games – going back to week seven after a bye in week eight – have seen the Shamrocks beat three quality opponents in Bishop Fenwick, St. Mary’s and North Andover.
Oh, and during that stretch, Feehan has allowed just seven total points, pitching shutouts now in back-to-back weeks. The latest of those came Friday night, as the No. 4 Shamrocks blanked the No. 13 Scarlet Knights, 17-0, in a Division 2 opening round matchup.
Feehan is now 8-1 and will host No. 5 Wellesley next week. North Andover, meanwhile, drops to 3-6.
“Great win tonight against a very well-coached team from the MVC,” Shamrocks coach Bryan Pinabell said. “We knew we were going to get a hard-nosed football team and that’s exactly how the first half played out. I thought we did a fantastic job of making halftime adjustments on both sides of the ball. Those halftime adjustments were really key tonight.”
Both teams like to pound the rock on offense, but neither team produced much in what was a tough and physical opening 24 minutes.
The Scarlet Knights aggressive defensive line made it tough on Feehan senior captain running back David Quinn. But late in the second quarter, the Shamrocks began to spread North Andover’s defense out a bit, which led to an Aidan Neary 23-yard field goal and a 3-0 halftime lead.
Then, at the half, Feehan’s offensive coaches decided to use that spread to get Quinn going. The Shamrocks started with the ball in the second half and put together a 10-play 65-yard drive, which Quinn – on his 18th birthday nonetheless – capped with a 20-yard touchdown run that had a bit of everything. Neary’s point after made it 10-0.
“At the half, I felt like we were in pretty good shape because at some point I knew we were going to get the running game going,” Pinabell said. “We spread ‘em out right before the half and we were able to move the ball a bit, so doing that allowed us to start hammering inside.”
“That touchdown felt great,” Quinn said. “That was one of those runs where I didn’t even know what was happening. My brain wasn’t even working, I just kind of let my body go. I was running hard, making cuts and ended up scoring. That was a fun one.”
After a Scarlet Knight three-and-out, Feehan started with the ball on North Andover’s 38 and needed just two plays to find the end zone. Owen Mordas hit Finn McHale on a short hitch, which McHale turned upfield around the right side and used his speed to score from 28 yards for a 17-0 lead.
“That was huge,” Pinabell said. “I was really happy how we responded coming out in the second half.”
“I just made a great catch off a tip and then just turned it upfield,” McHale said. “I knew I could take the outside so I took the outside.”
Defensively, the Shamrocks had some trouble on North Andover’s first possession of the game, giving up some chunks of yards before ultimately forcing a punt. But Feehan began to focus on the running and scrambling ability of Scarlet Knight quarterback Billy Vincent and it paid off.
“I thought we did a really good job of limiting him in the second half,” Pinabell added.
