By Dakota Antelman, Managing Editor
(Photo/Dakota Antelman)
MARLBOROUGH – The Marlborough Shamrocks will play for a league championship, Oct. 16 after they beat the Boston Bandits by a score of 17-7, Oct. 9 at Kelleher Field.
Their final home game in what has been a dominant season on the gridiron saw the Shamrocks strike first on a Blake Rice shovel pass over the middle to tight end Bobby Goldsby in the endzone.
Rice connected with wide receiver Martell Hughes later in that same half on another major reception to set Marlborough up just outside the Boston 10-yard line with a chance to double their lead. Though the offense couldn’t get into the endzone, the Shamrocks added a field goal.
Boston’s offense answered with 10:24 remaining in the third quarter, only to then see Marlborough’s Graham Asum dart through a crowd of Bandit defenders on his way to an 80-yard touchdown for the Shamrocks.
Marlborough locked down the victory late with a handful of major defensive plays.
Daeshaun Perkins hit Boston’s quarterback hard with just under three minutes left in the game, dropping him for a sac.
Boston attempted a field goal but missed from their new line of scrimmage following Perkins’ sac.
Lamar Edmonds came down with an interception with 2:08 left on the clock, giving the ball back to his offense just before the two minute warning.
Cornerback Kyle Jimenez-Fox then effectively ended the game with his own interception in the endzone with five seconds left.
“They’re well coached, they’re well run, we knew it was going to come in here and be a dogfight,” Marlborough offensive coordinator Harrison Ingels said of the Bandits after the win. “They made some great second half adjustments. We were able to just keep our adjustments to stop them from scoring.”
“Any time you win by two scores, you’re happy at the end of the day,” he continued.
The league championship will see the Shamrocks take on the Southern New England Admirals at Gill Stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.
RELATED CONTENT:
Shamrocks win league quarterfinals against Connecticut (communityadvocate.com)
Shamrocks power past Mustangs in regular season finale (communityadvocate.com)
Shamrocks beat Southern Maine at home (communityadvocate.com)
