Red Raider Football Team Remains Unbeaten

By: Tom Moran Jr.
Published: 09/28/12

Yellow was the color of the evening when the Barnstable High football team ran its record to 3-0 with a penalty-filled 35-14 win over host Sandwich at Bulldog Stadium last Friday.

The Red Raiders were their own worst enemies, getting flagged on 14 occasions for a variety of rule infractions which not only cost them more than 100 yards but took three touchdowns off the board.

“The penalties on the field are one thing,” said BHS coach Chris Whidden, “but penalties after the whistle are inexcusable. We were lucky those penalties didn’t cost us the game.”

Despite their somewhat ragged effort, the Red Raiders still had no problem getting the job done as quarterback Nick Peabody completed 27 passes good for 402 yards and five touchdowns and wide receivers Dylan Morris (five receptions, 113 yards and three touchdowns) and Tedaro France (eight receptions, 151 yards and two touchdowns) paced an offensive attack the host Blue Knights had no luck containing while interceptions by safety Derek Estes and linebacker Terrence Mudie set the tone for Barnstable on the defensive side of the ball.

Neither team was sharp early on as Peabody and his SHS counterpart Zack Wagner traded interceptions on their teams’ opening possessions with the Red Raiders compounding their first-quarter struggles by fumbling the ball away after picking off a Wagner aerial.

The Red Raiders finally got their offensive act together in the latter stages of the quarter, using 10 plays to go 44 yards with Morris capping the drive with a 16-yard touchdown reception.

The TD came with just :47.3 left in the quarter and Mudie followed with the first of his five PAT conversions to give the Red Raiders a 7-0 lead.

The Blue Knights looked to have something going on the ensuing possession but a fumble gave the ball back to the Red Raiders and they made their hosts pay as a wide-open France waltzed into the end zone untouched to complete the 20-yard scoring toss from Peabody.

The Red Raiders saw their chance to really put the hammer to the Blue Knights denied just minutes later when a 60-yard touchdown pass to France was negated by an offside penalty and this time it was the Blue Knights that benefited, forcing the Barnstable offense to turn the ball over on downs before mounting a scoring drive of their own.

Wagner hooked up with wide receiver Jake Kangas on a 13-yard TD pass but the home team saw their PAT kick go wide left and the Barnstable lead had been cut to 14-6 with 1:23 left to play in the first half.

That amount of time was more than enough for Peabody and France as the duo went long distance on the Red Raiders’ first down play with France stepping under Peabody’s perfectly-thrown pass and outrunning a pair of SHS defenders on the 56-yard TD play with :59.7 still on the game clock that, along with Mudie’s conversion, upped the BHS lead to 21-6.

A 47-yard touchdown pass to Manny Perry was whistled off by a holding penalty but that proved to be a temporary setback as catches of 17, 12 and 21 yards by France kept the drive alive and Morris brought it to a successful conclusion with his second touchdown catch of the day, this one from 25 yards out.

Late in the third quarter, the Blue Knights had a touchdown pass from Wagner to wideout Tim Sullivan negated by a holding penalty but the home team kept it focus and finally found its way back into the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter on a Wagner keeper from one yard out and then cut the BHS lead to 28-14 when Marc Petersen hauled in Wagner’s pass on the two-point conversion try.

A Barnstable fumble gave the ball right back to the Blue Knights but the Sandwich offense wound up right back on the sideline when Mudie picked off Wagner at the SHS 31 and Peabody and Morris took it from there with the senior wide receiver recording his third TD catch of the night by hauling in the strike from Peabody.

The Red Raiders did make one last trip into the end zone, this time on a 66-yard run by Hayden Murphy with a little more than four minutes left to play, only to have a holding penalty cost the junior halfback the yardage and the touchdown.

The Red Raider defense made sure that 35-14 was the final margin of victory, completely shutting down the Sandwich offense on its final possession of the game.

Leading the BHS defense were linebackers Andrew Ellis (seven tackles), Bryan Hardy (six tackles), Terrence Mudie (three tackles, a sack and an interception), Rob Stuart (four tackles), defensive ends Johnny Eldredge (four tackles) and Jason Frieh (three tackles), safety Derek Estes (four tackles, an interception and three passes defended) and defensive tackle Dereck Pacheco (a sack).

Leave a Reply

In order to comment you need to be logged in.