Previewing the South Shore’s Super Bowl slate: K&J Sports Show Ep. 13
Hosts Jason Snow and Chris McDaniel dive into each matchup as six South Shore high school football teams have reached the Super Bowl.
FOXBORO — After the rush settled, Ben Scalzi was one of the final Hanover High football players to leave the field.
When he first stepped on it in 2021, he made one of his first impressions among the many options within the Hawks’ bevy of wide receivers.
Friday night, when he walked off of it for the final time in a Hanover uniform — this time at Gillette Stadium — Scalzi concluded his career as one of the top quarterback talents in school history.
In his second year as the team’s starting signal caller, Scalzi steered the top-seeded Hawks to their first Super Bowl appearance since the team claimed the crown in 2016, although it was quickly overshadowed by No. 2 Foxboro — the de facto home team — as the Warriors denied Hanover of Division 5 supremacy in a 48-21 final Friday night.
Scalzi completed 17 of his 33 passes for 221 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss. Though he learned to play quarterback in second grade, Scalzi assumed the varsity role in 2021 after predecessor Michael Landolfi transferred to Lawrence Academy.
Scalzi became the program’s all-time leading passer at the conclusion of an All-Scholastic season last fall.
“Ben’s just tremendous. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime kid and quarterback,” Hanover’s first-year head coach Brian Kelliher said. “He was a pleasure to coach. What he accomplished, it isn’t done by many people. His stats would’ve been more had I played him full games, which we didn’t.”
That’s because Hanover’s first 11 games of the season (excluding a loss to Norwell on Thanksgiving in which the starters rested), all wins, were decided by an average of 21.8 points.
Scalzi completed 72.8 percent of his passes for 2,800 yards and 27 TDs and seven interceptions as a junior. Friday’s final tally boosted his senior-year total to 37 TDs.
“It shows how much of an unreal athlete he is,” said senior lineman John Regan. “I mean, truly, he’s probably one of the most incredible athletes to ever come through Hanover. With the right factors on the rest of the team, (his position switch) worked well for us.”
“It’s been a great journey. I love my teammates,” Scalzi said. “Stepping in at quarterback last year, I knew I had to be a leader. I knew I had to lead this team to as many wins as I could. … I had to step into a huge role and did the best I could.”
Scalzi orchestrated a promising opening strike for Hanover Friday night as he hit senior receiver John McDonald for a short completion, and McDonald (7 catches, 136 yards) maneuvered through a wave of Foxboro defenders to win a race to the end zone for a 66-yard score as the Hawks took a 7-0 edge at the 7:39 mark of the first quarter.
Then the Foxboro defense cranked it up.
More: Scoring machine: Record-setting offense lifts Duxbury past Scituate in Div. 4 Super Bowl
More: Comeback kids: Milton football rallies from early deficit to win Div. 3 Super Bowl
Hanover committed four turnovers and compiled just 36 rushing yards in the loss. Before the Hawks found the end zone for a second time, Foxboro spotted 28 on the board as the Warriors, led by hard-hitting senior linebackers Brandon Mazenkas-O’Grady (6’3″, 200 pounds) and Lincoln Moore (6’3″, 225), carried a three-score cushion into the halftime break (35-14).
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything like that (defensive pressure),” Scalzi said. “They have an amazing D-Line. I didn’t really have much time (to throw). All praise to them. They did a fantastic job.”
“We knew we couldn’t come into this game and turn the ball over. Unfortunately, we did,” Kelliher said. “We couldn’t make up five possessions, especially with (Foxboro’s) power run game and physicality. It was too much.”
For Foxboro, junior running back Ben Angelini ran 22 times for 141 yards and 2 TDs and senior Tony Fulham ran nine times for 80 yards and 2 TDs as the Warriors secured their first crown since 2006.
Last year, Hanover — previously a Division 3 team — lost to Milton, 34-32, in the Final Four and was eliminated just one game shy of the title game. The class of 26 seniors came into play this fall devising a roadmap back, despite the departure of coach Chris Landolfi who took over a likely short-term responsibility as Lawrence Academy’s offensive coordinator.
Said Kelliher, “I just told the kids, I pulled them in at the end, and I said, ‘Do me a favor. Look around. For the rest of your life, you’re going to say that you got here. It hurts right now and that’s life, but it’s an accomplishment in the end. It won’t feel great today, but it will eventually.’”
“It’s really a testament to how we worked as a team,” Regan said. “It didn’t work out the way we wanted, but making it here was a huge accomplishment for us.”
2023-12-02 06:35:22
#Ben #Scalzis #position #shift #paved #Super #Bowl #path #Hanover #football
