The temporary lights weren’t the only reason Stone Park was glowing Friday night as the Dedham High football team put itself in position for an upset over Framingham. With 27 unanswered points, the Flyers dimmed things pretty quickly.
Behind the Bay State Conference’s best quarterback, Dan Guadagnoli, Framingham rallied from a first-half deficit to pull away from the Marauders for a 34-15 win.
Coupled with Norwood’s 17-0 win over Needham, the Flyers moved into a first-place tie with Needham in the Carey Division at 4-1. Dedham remains winless at 0-5.
The Marauders turned three Framingham turnovers in the first half into a 15-7 lead late in the first half, but the Flyers two-minute offense leveled the game by the break and Framingham found the end zone with its first two drives of the second half to distance themselves before cashing in for an insurance score.
“Obviously we played very well in the first half, it was exciting to see. The second half they just executed better than us,” said Dedham coach Keith Comeau. “I was real proud of the way the kids came out, they love playing under the lights. They just did a better job than us in the second half.”
It looked like it might be a long night on Whiting Avenue’s annual illumination when Framingham struck 55 seconds in. A 35-yard skinny post to Derek Richards from Guadagnoli and a roughing-the quarterback call set the Flyers up deep in Dedham territory. Two plays later, a Guadognoli keeper from 9 yards out and a PAT made it 7-0.
But opportunity knocked multiple times for the Marauders in the first half and Dedham answered with glee.
A first muffed punt netted no points, but the Marauders quickly snatched the ball back, as Paul Sullivan hopped on a loose ball to set Dedham up on the Framingham 29. It took six plays for Dedham quarterback John O’Connell to make the Flyers pay, hitting Sullivan on a pretty fade route to the left corner, tying it at 7-7 with 9:10 to go in the half after Chris Pezzoulo’s kick.
The teams exchanged defensive stops when a second muffed punt left the door open again on the Framingham 8. On third down from the 9, O’Connell and Sullivan hooked up on another left-corner fade to grab the lead.
The snap on the kick was low, but holder O’Connell scooped it up and sprinted for the right pylon, launching himself into the path of a pair Framingham defender but still pinballing across the plane for a 15-7 edge with 1:50 left in the first.
That’s when Framingham’s generosity waned. Guadagnoli led the Flyers back down the field 65 yards in six plays, throwing a rope 32 yards down the left sideline to Nicholas Liqouri for a 32-yard score. A Guadognoli slant to Richards tied it a 15-all with 37 seconds left, which is how they went into the locker rooms.
The three turnovers that had proved so fruitful for the Marauders in the first half, were replaced by two of their own. Framingham stopped Dedham out of halftime then marched 97 yards for the game’s pivotal score.
Abou Toure, who rushed for 104 of his 116 yards in the second half, did much of the work, but Guadagnoli capped it with a 6-yard slant to Richards, with a blocked PAT holding the margin at 21-15.
“That late score helped them with momentum a little but we got the ball back to start the second half and I thought we could take the momentum back,” said Comeau. “That first time we moved the ball and had couple nice play but we had some penalties and mistakes that stopped us. We have to find a way to eliminate those little things.”
Framingham swiftly increased the edge as a Daniel Ruiz interception put the Flyers at the Dedham 29. Guadagnoli hit Liquori for his third touchdown pass of the day four plays later for a 27-15 advantage with 1:51 left in the third. Guadagnoli was 15-of-21 for 179 yards on the night.
“They did an excellent job, their coach and their whole staff did a great job and they are tough kids,” said Framingham coach Gary Doherty of Dedham. “We came out and turned the ball over three times in the first half and you can’t do that in this league and get away with it. I thought or our kids and our coaches were tight. We loosed up in the second half and played football and we did a much better job.”
A fourth-quarter fumble in Flyers territory sealed Dedham’s fate as Toure salted it away with a 3-yard score with 3:15 left.
“We have known all along that we can play with these teams, we’ve been in a lot of these games,” said Comeau. “We know what kind of kids we have and what kind of athletes that we have. I hope these guys understand that we’re pretty good, we just have to play two halves.”
