By Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports)
WORCESTER, Mass.- What a way to end it.
Since 2014, the Millis-Hopedale co-op football team has been dissolving, with incoming classes of Hopedale players joining the Blackstone-Millville-Hopedale co-op. But before the Mohawks (10-3) co-op is totally gone (one player will remain next season), they gave people a reason to remember them on Saturday afternoon at Worcester State University. M-H topped the previously undefeated Maynard Tigers (12-1), 30-18 in the Div. 4A Super Bowl.
“It’s incredible. Going from being a program in 2009 that almost folded to winning a Super Bowl in 2016, I don’t even know what to say right now, I’m just so proud of our kids,” Mohawks head coach Dana Olson said. “It’s truly an unbelievable feeling.”
As far as high school offenses go, these two teams could not have been much more different. But the Mohawks pass-heavy scheme won the day, as quarterback Bryce Latosek threw for over 300 yards and four touchdown passes in the win.
On their final drive of the first half, the Mohawks put themselves up a full score, 20-12, as Latosek hit Brian Espanet with a 14-yard touchdown pass. Espanet had seven receptions for 98 yards in the win.
“It’s not fair because nobody can cover him really,” Latosek said of his teammate. “I just throw the ball up there and nobody can get up there and cover him. I just know he’s going to go up and get it.”
It was another throw that extended the Mohawks lead to 15 in the second half. Latosek lobbed one to Dominic Zonfrelli on a bubble screen and Zonfrelli took it 44 yards to the end zone. A successful PAT try made the Mohawks lead 27-12.
In the fourth quarter, the Tigers threw a rare pass, and it worked. Thomas Smith connected with Eric Kiley for a 24-yard touchdown. But that was all the offense the Tigers had in them in the second half. And the Mohawks took back their double-digit lead on a 22-yard Andrew Brooks field goal with about five minutes remaining.
Latosek had a pair of 57-yard touchdown passes in the first half, one to PJ Adams and the other to Raymond Hilaire.
Though they ultimately fell, the Tigers scored first. Taking over on their own 29 to start their second drive, the Tigers gave themselves an early 6-0 lead on a 71-yard touchdown run by Ryan MacCormack. With 4:06 remaining in the first half, MacCormack also ran in a 57-yard touchdown to bring his Tigers within two, 14-12.
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