The effort left plenty to be desired, the execution was lacking and consequently the result was nothing short of a disaster for the Dedham High football team on Friday night.
The Marauders were run off the field by Weymouth to the tune of 55-7 and dropped to 0-8 on the season. Dedham mustered just 98 yards of offense for the game, 58 of it coming with 1:11 remaining in the contest on a Bryan Hummel-to-Brendan Gassler touchdown pass. In addition to being intercepted three times, one of which was returned for a touchdown, Dedham rushed for minus-5 yards on 14 carries.
The Wildcats entered the night with the mindset of delivering a bit of payback from a year ago when they were the only team to drop a game to Dedham, losing 25-7.
Weymouth scored on each of its first seven drives and rushed for 385 yards with Derek Newcomb leading the way with 134 yards and three first-quarter touchdowns on just 10 carries.
“We executed real well tonight, but we remember last year when they got us last year,” said Wildcats coach Kevin Mackin. “Our kids were focused on not letting that happen again.”
On a night when the defense allowed 8.9 yards per carry, the first-string offense could only muster two first downs – they finished with four – and the special teams unit consistently allowed the returner to be swallowed up by six or seven Wildcats, Gassler managed to rise above that.
Trailing 28-0 in the second quarter, Gassler chased down Dylan Garvey after the fullback breezed into the secondary on a run behind the left side of the offensive line. Gassler managed to catch up to Garvey at about the 5, and knock him off balance. While Garvey managed to stumble into the end zone for the touchdown, it was a glimmer of hope in a dark night for the Marauders.
Gassler was rewarded for his efforts later on, hauling in a touchdown pass from backup quarterback Hummel (2-for-3, 71 yards) on a well-thrown deep ball down the left side with 1:11 left in the game. Despite having his man fall down early in the route, Gassler managed to outrun the rest of the Wildcats defense and allow the Marauders to avoid being shut out for a second straight week.
Marauders coach Keith Comeau showed obvious concern over the outing from his club.
“There’s obviously ways to improve, ways to improve our effort, ways to improve our execution,” said Comeau, whose team takes on Newton North at Boston College on Saturday. “We have to respond to some adversity. We had some adversity early with Carmen (Dello Iacono) going down, we had some adversity with the way they were running the ball and the way they were dominating the game. We have to be able to step up and counteract their approach and what they’re doing to us and that’s something we can work on in practice and that’s something we can get back to the drawing board on.”
