Non-league grind: Somerset Berkley football holds off Durfee late comeback effort

FALL RIVER — Whenever Durfee meets up with Somerset Berkley in football, you can expect a battle to the finish.

Raiders head coach Nick Freitas already had the Hilltoppers on his mind at 5:15 a.m.

"I was on my way to General Fitness and took a left to go onto President's Avenue like I was coming here," Freitas smiled. "I did not know what the heck was going on. But I was locked in from that moment."

SBR took advantage of four turnovers in the first half before hanging on for dear life in the final 20 minutes as the Raiders held off a comeback effort by Durfee with a 28-14 victory before a large crowd at B.M.C. Durfee High School.

"It's always a good game between the two teams," Freitas said. "Durfee always brings it. They were physical but I thought we did a great job handling it, bend but don't break. Turnovers were obviously big for us. We'll enjoy the victory tonight and league play starts tomorrow for us"

Senior quarterback Brendan McDonald scored a pair of touchdowns for SBR (3-1) in the victory. Junior running back Finn Crook added a rushing touchdown. Senior Finn Bjork led the charge for the Raiders defense with a sack and pick six for a touchdown from 53 yards away.

"It was all about aggression in the first half," Bjork said. "We work on it in practice and boys they all wanted it. The interception give credit to Coach Santos and I did the rest. It was a thriller there in the second half."

After allowing 28 answered points, the Hilltopper defense forced two punts and stopped SBR on a fourth-down play.

That set the stage for Durfee sophomore quarterback Matt Sherry, who tossed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Alvin Gaston. Sherry also got the Hilltoppers (0-4) deep into Raiders territory for a second score on a weird touchdown recovery near the goal line by senior center Carter Morel to make it a two-score game at 28-14 with 10:39 remaining in the fourth quarter.

"I think we came together in the second half and stopped pointing fingers," said Sherry, who 7-for-12 for 109 yards passing in the second half. "I feel [like] anything can happen. They did not score in the second half. We started to come back and grab the momentum."

Durfee had another shot to get closer but could not convert a 4th-and-5 play.

"A good second half," Hilltopper head coach Taylor Brown said. "But we just can't have five turnovers in the first half and expect to be in any game. We'll work on that. We can take what we did in the second half minus the tuurnovers in the first half."

POINTS AFTER:

Somerset Berkley completed its non-league schedule and will now enter their league schedule, beginning next week against Greater New Bedford.

"This is probably the best we could hope for, coming into league play," Freitas said. "We are going in healthy that's important. We have a few kids that are knicked up but we'll have them ready to go by Monday."

Durfee running backs Kayden Kheav (40 yards) and Lamar Perry each had a productive second half running the ball. Junior wideout Ben Sherry nearly had a 43-yard touchdown reception before stepping out at the Raiders 3.

McDonald, Hayden Teasdale and Bradley Melo each had fumble recoveries for SBR. Cullen Doherty also contributed an interception in the third quarter.

Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette sports editor Steven Sanchez can be reached at ssanchez@heraldnews.com. You can follow him on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Chezsports.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Non-league grind: Somerset Berkley football holds off Durfee late comeback effort