By Matt Feld (@mattyfeld612)
BOSTON -The first five weeks may have been an introductory welcome for BC High quarterback Will Bowen, but Friday night was his coming out party.
With host BC High and rival St. John’s Prep tied at 13 with under 4 minutes to play, Bowen engineered an 11-play, 74-yard drive, capped off by a game-winning touchdown run from Danny Abraham as No. 2 BC High pulled out a 20-13 victory over the Prep in a crucial Catholic Conference clash.
On two separate occasions BC High faced third down. Bowen ran up the gut out of shotgun for seven yards on third and two to get BC High to the Prep 27 yard line.
Three plays later, BC High (6-0, 2-0) was forced into a third and seven and elected to throw to put themselves in field goal range with less than a minute to play.
Bowen took the snap, rolled right, and hit Elijah Miranda in the flat for 15 yards to set up Abraham’s game winning touchdown run.
“That was something we were watching all game,” said Bowen. “The defensive end as I was rolling would pursue up field, and we knew (Elijah) could slip through and that was his time to shine.”
Just moments earlier it appeared that No. 9 St. John’s Prep (3-3, 2-1) would go in for the game winning score as they possessed the ball on the BC High 46 yard line with six minutes to play.
BC High’s defense forced Prep into a fourth and 11 from the BC High 35 yard line. The Prep elected to go for it and Matt Crowley hit Mike Yarin on an out route that appeared would be enough for a first down. Eagles’ linebacker Eamon Walsh tripped Yarin up from behind, however, to set BC High up for the game winning drive.
“This is a very mentally tough team,” said BC High coach John Bartlett. “This is the third time where we haven’t scored first and comeback to win. We talk about mental toughness all the time. The kids don’t give up and very resilient.”
Prep held a 13-7 lead and possessed the ball to begin the third quarter. A trip inside the red zone came up empty when a 32-yard field goal went wide right.
BC High’s offense went right to work with Bowen hitting Francis Dooley for 10 yards and three rushes by Bowen and Abraham that combined for 32 yards pushed BC High inside the five yard line.
After the Prep stuffed Abraham for a loss of six, BC High called on Bowen (3-for-5 58 yards, 19 carries 101 yards, TD) to tie the score. The senior quarterback delivered rushing it in straight up the middle out of shotgun from eight yards out to even the score at 13.
St. John’s Prep jumped on top of BC High 13-0 right out of the gate.
A blocked field gave the Prep solid field position at their own 34-yard line for the first drive of the game. Aise Pream proceeded to make his presence felt immediately as a 48 yard run brought the Prep inside the one before Pream crossed the goal line himself to put the Prep up 7-0.
BC High once again moved deep into Prep territory and Bowen seemed to hook up with Seamus Donovan for a 25 yard score. Donovan, however, was ruled out of bounds turning the ball over to the Prep on downs.
Crowley put together his best drive of the game going 4-of-6 for 58 yards the final completion of which was a 10 yard touchdown pass to Yarin on a slant route over the middle to give the Prep a 13-0 edge.
Still, BC High remained poised and opened up the playbook to get back in the game.
Two Bobby DeMeo runs circled around a 33 yard rush from Abraham got BC High inside the Prep 30 yard line. Bowen followed up by rushing 10 yards to get inside the Prep 15. Moments later, Abraham rushed in from one yard out to cut the Prep lead to 13-7 at the intermission.
“This team is battle tested and we’re mentally tough,” said Abraham. “We looked at each other in the locker room and came out in the second half and played hard.”
When it was not Bowen or Abraham, it was DeMeo or Luke Murphy putting their stamp on the contest for BC High. DeMeo finished with 5 carries for 96 yards while Murphy reeled in a key interception in the second quarter to keep the hosts within a score.
“(Bobby) is a talented player,” said Bartlett. “Danny and Will get more carries than Bobby does but he is as important in that offensive attack. He is kind of the unsung of the backfield but Bobby is a real solid player.”
The win not only puts BC High in the driver's seat for the Catholic Conference, but if the play of Bowen and DeMeo is anything like what is to come, BC High is undoubtedly the favorite in Division 1 South.
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