Marauders Fail to Capitalize on Early Lead

Coming off a 12-8 victory over Braintree to start their season, the Dedham Marauder football team headed to Natick Thursday night in an effort to start the season 2-0.

The Marauders appeared to be doing everything right early in the game, getting out to a commanding 14-0 lead early in the second quarter, but Natick would respond with 28 unanswered points en route to a 28-14 victory.

"We came out flying and got up two scores early. We'd have liked to keep our foot on the pedal there, but we made some mistakes," said Marauders' head coach Keith Comeau.

One of those mistakes being a fumbled kickoff recovery by junior Mikyle Hill, which gave Natick possession at the 10-yard line with less than three minutes left in the half. The turnover would result in a touchdown with a missed extra point to cut the lead to 14-13 going into the half.

Turnovers weren't the only problem the Marauders dealt with. On defense, they couldn't figure out Natick's running game, lead by running backs Chris Yonuss (107 yards, 1 touchdown) and Glen Duffy (80 yards, 3 touchdown), as they rushed for 281 total yards.

"We switched between a three-man front, a four-man with a standing sand backer, and then we'd switch into a heavy front, which is a five-man, so that was our hope that we'd be able to stop their belly-in-belly option up the middle, but they just kind of pounded it down our throat," said Marauders defensive tackle Brian Carilli.

Down 21-14 with roughly eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Marauders were faced with fourth-and-six inside their own 20, and opted to go for it. They failed to convert, and once again turned the ball over to Natick, giving them great field position.

"It's a call I made and I have to live with it," said Comeau.

"I thought we had a play that would've worked, and at that point in the game they'd been grinding us down on defense and I thought that we had to move the ball a little bit on offense and try and score a touchdown."

"We felt confident in our offense at the time. That touchdown was needed to keep momentum going but it just didn't happen," said Carilli.

Natick capitalized on the failed conversion and ran the ball in for a touchdown, putting the nail in the coffin for the Marauders.

The loss to Natick, a team who has given the Marauders trouble in years past, drops them to 1-1 on the season.

"That's a really good team over there, and we played with them. The way we look at it is, we kind of gave the game away with our mistakes and our penalties," said Comeau.

The Marauders next game is Saturday, Sept. 25, against Framingham at Westwood High School.

Download the movie