By Matt Feld (@mattyfeld612)
FOXBOROUGH - For Everett, Saturday night was a perfect ending to a perfect season.
Jake Willcox threw for 185 and two touchdowns while Anthony Norcia compiled 124 yards receiving as Everett defeated Xaverian, 35-10, to win the Division 1 Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium.
The Crimson Tide (12-0) went into the half holding their smallest halftime lead of the season at 14-10.
As it did all season long, Everett, in the blink of an eye, left its opponent in the dust.
Everett outscored the Hawks 21-0 over the final 20 minutes, including a highlight reel 98-yard run by Kevin Brown to cement their Super Bowl fate.
It is Everett’s 12th Super Bowl win since 1997, and second in a row.
“You can’t pick one team, you can’t pick one Super Bowl,” said Everett coach John DiBiaso. “I’m very blessed, on the 18th hole going into the clubhouse, so this meant a lot.”
From the first day of training camp, the Crimson Tide were considered to be far and away the top team in Massachusetts. There was not one moment this season where they did not live up to the hype.
Offensive stars in Willcox, Mike Sainristil, Isaiah Likely, Jason Maitre, and Norcia lit up the scoreboard, while Lewis Cine and Duanne Binns kept fans on the edge of their seats.
As Saturday night proved, fall in love with one Crimson Tide star for too long, and another will quickly emerge.
Sainristil made himself known on the defensive side of the ball on the first dirve of the game. The junior defensive back stepped in front of a Davin Sweeney pass and took it the distance, pulling out a pretty spin move on a potential tackler, for a 42 yard pick-six to give the Crimson Tide a 7-0 lead.
On the Crimson Tide’s first offensive possession it was Sainristil again. After Willcox hooked up for with Norcia for 17 yards, Sainristil scored from three yards out to put Everett up 14-0.
“(Mike Sainristil) and (Anthony Norcia) are two guys who are when the game is on the line you want to put the ball in their hands,” said Willcox. “All four of them.”
The Hawks got back into the game before the half using their ground and pound style of offense to keep the Tide offense off the field.
Sweeney answered the Tide’s second touchdown hitting Cooper DeVeau for 48 yards to get the Hawks inside the 20-yard line.
Two plays later, Ike Irabor trucked in from 15 yards out to close the gap to 14-7.
A Brian Fallon 20-yard field goal cut the deficit to 14-10 heading into the half.
“They played ball-control, they ran the ball well,” said DiBiaso. “The second half we were able to get that score, it was so important that first set of downs. Now we’re up 11, it’s a little different game.”
Xaverian totaled 144 yards on the ground over the first two quarters 56 of which came from fullback Michael Masse.
While the first half belonged to Sanristil, the second half belonged to Norcia.
Willcox came out of the locker room and immediately fed the ball to the wide receiver DiBiaso called “Willcox’s binky.”
On first and 10 from the Hawks 28-yard line Norcia beat his man on a slant-n-go route and Willcox dropped it in the bucket for his first touchdown pass of the day to make it 21-10 Everett.
Xaverian had a chance to answer as they worked down inside the Crimson Tide five-yard line.
Facing a fourth and goal from the two Hawks coach Al Fornaro elected to go for it, but Sweeney’s pass sailed over the head of Brian Abraham turning the ball back over to the Everett offense.
Brown put the game out of reach within seconds taking the handoff on the first play of the drive, getting outside, and flying down the far sideline for a 98-yard touchdown run to put the Crimson Tide up 18.
The start of the fourth quarter saw the a fourth different Everett player cross the goal line, as Likely corralled a 14-yard pass from Willcox to cap off the Crimson Tide’s scoring output for the season.
“There is not a better feeling than winning the Super Bowl,” said Willcox. “With all my best friends, we all just went out there and gave it our all.”
While the debate is sure to go on for months over where this team ranks among John DiBiaso’s best, one thing is for certain – this year in Massachusetts they were always a cut above the rest.
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