After St. Mark’s running back Tucker Mizhir busted a 10-yard touchdown run through the middle of Noble and Greenough’s defensive front on Saturday, the host Bulldogs looked up at the scoreboard to see an unfamiliar sight — their team trailing.
“I was interested to see how we would come back from being behind,” said Noble head coach Bob Moore. “We haven’t been behind yet this year, so I was anxious to see if we’d come back.”
They answered that concern with 33 unanswered points over the next three quarters. On the arm of McCallum Foote, the feet of Sean Shakespeare, and the defensive penetration of lineman Rob Troy, the undefeated Bulldogs pulled together and took a 33-13 win to improve to 3-0 in the Independent School League.
After St. Mark’s opening score, the Bulldogs relied on the running of Shakespeare (10 carries, 123 yards) and Peter Owen (five carries, 40 yards), who grinded out tough inside yards on the ensuing 80-yard drive. With the running game established, Nobles quarterback McCallum Foote went to the pass and found sophomore receiver Mike Reardon in the left corner of the end zone for a 7-yard score.
With 3:28 remaining in the first half, running back Ian Graves barreled off right guard for a 13-yard score, giving the Bulldogs a 12-6 lead. Before halftime, Foote used his own feet to scamper for a score, a seven-yard keeper to push the lead to 19-6.
“I came out timid,” said Foote, who finished 9-for-16 passing for 168 yards with three touchdowns passing and one rushing to go along with two first-half interceptions. “I didn’t play my best today, but when we were able to get the run going with Sean and Peter (Owen), it was such a huge help. (St. Mark’s) defense is going to come out and try to stop me, and they don’t realize we have two great backs in the backfield.”
When the Lions expected those runners early in the third, Foote dumped a pass over the middle to sophomore Mike Reardon, who took it 43 yards for a touchdown. With 5:56 left in the quarter, he again found Aibel, whose 10-yard score put the Bulldogs up 33-6. Both scoring drives were enabled by cracks in St. Mark’s underneath coverage, which Moore and his staff noticed and exploited.
“They didn’t want to get beat by any deep balls,” said Moore, whose team has won 12 straight. “They were putting three guys deep, so it was just a matter of running the right plays against their front. We took advantage of some things there, which then opened up some seams we could hit a little bit with mid-range passing.”
When St. Mark’s defense did slow the Bulldogs attack, their offense couldn’t capitalize on any afforded opportunities. With mammoth back Russell Braithwaite known as the focal point of the Lion running attack, Noble stacked the line and held the 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior to just 10 yards in the first half. When St. Mark’s tried to go to the air, quarterback Jake Smith found few seconds before continuously encountering Bulldogs tackle Rob Troy. The converted senior linebacker finished with four sacks, and led a defense who induced Smith into a 3-for-7, 59 yard, and two pick performance. On the afternoon, the ‘Dawgs defense forced three turnovers and held the Lions to 210 yards.
“We just started hitting them much harder,” said Troy, who now has at least one sack in each of the first three games. “We knew we needed to focus, and I don’t think we came out with enough intensity. Later in the game, we picked that up.”
