DARTMOUTH — Moments after Friday night’s 27-7 non-league win over Barnstable, Dartm o uth High head coach Rick White looked up at the scoreboard at Dartmouth Memorial Stadium and proclaimed, “Dartmouth football is back.”
Even though his team had beaten Apponequet heading into last week’s bye, Dartmouth’s injury-plagued defense had struggled, giving up more than 25 points for the second straight game.
“It makes you rethink everything that you’re doing on defense, but injuries played a big deal,” said White, noting that Dartmouth was without linebackers Tom Quinn, Aidan Gendron and Michael Hauck. “We worked hard in practice the last couple of weeks with tackling and getting back to the basics and fundamental football. I was really proud.
“(Coaches) Mike Martin and Justin Zexter had these guys fired up today and ready to play. We just played well in space. Some of the things we did poorly against Apponequet, we just cleaned up.”
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With the return of Quinn and Hauck, Dartmouth’s defense held the Red Hawks to just 139 yards of total offense and kept Barnstable out of the end zone until the final minute of the game.
“When we’re all together, it shows how good we can be as a unit,” Quinn said. “We’ve battled a lot of adversity that we faced against Apponequet and Old Rochester and this was the coming out party. I knew this would happen. I had all the faith in the defense.
“It’s a testament to our defense. We grinded it out every single play.”
Dartmouth forced Barnstable to punt three times in the first half and made a stand on fourth down and five from the 11 with less than a minute to play in the second quarter.
“I thought that was a big stop there with inches left before the half,” White said.
Dartmouth senior Markus Andrews forced Barnstable’s lone turnover in the game with an interception on the Red Hawks’ opening drive of the third quarter.
“All week we kind of focused on our defense and everything we worked on in practice really showed today,” Andrews said. “Everyone that came in and played defense stepped up.
“That was a statement. We knew our defense had to step up and shut them down.”
Dartmouth senior lineman Jayden Claudio had a pair of sacks, setting the tone on defense.
“When everyone else does their job, it opens up lanes for me to hit the quarterback,” he said. “I’m glad I was able to get the job done.”
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HOW IT HAPPENED
Dartmouth opened the game with a 6-play, 60-yard drive that was capped off by a 12-yard touchdown run by Andrews to go ahead 6-0.
“He can hurt you in a lot of different ways,” White said. “He really showed up tonight. I was really proud of him. I told him that. I said, ‘You really played a complete football game on both sides of the ball.’
“He tackled well. Playing free safety, he was bracketing their best receiver. He was making plays all over the field. I thought he finished his runs off.”
Dartmouth increased its lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter when senior quarterback Jackson Hart scored on a 9-yard TD run.
Hart connected with senior receiver Derek Stevens on a 2-yard TD to start the fourth quarter, putting Dartmouth out front 20-0. After a three and out by Barnstable, Hart broke free for a 57-yard scoring scamper to extend his team’s lead to 27-0 with 7:56 left.
Barnstable scored its only touchdown on a 3-yard run by junior Jayson Dyer with 37 seconds remaining.
Senior receiver Asante Aurora helped shut down Barnstable receiver Kayden Fortes, allowing just three catches for 21 yards.
“No. 4 for them is an excellent receiver and Asante Aurora volunteered to cover him,” White said.
WHAT IT MEANS
With the win, Dartmouth improved to 5-1. The team will travel to Bridgewater-Raynham on Friday to play for the conference title. … The loss was the second straight for Barnstable (5-2), which started the season 5-0.
DARTMOUTH 27, BARNSTABLE 7
Barnstable;0;0;0;7 — 7
Dartmouth;6;8;0;13 — 27
Scoring
First Quarter
D: Markus Andrews 12 run (kick failed), 9:23
Second Quarter
D: Jackson Hart 9 run (Jackson Hart run), 9:24
Third Quarter
Fourth Quarter
D: Derek Stevens 2 pass from Jackson Hart (pass failed), 11:51
D: Jackson Hart 57 run (Lucas Botelho kick), 7:56
B: Jayson Dyer 8 run (Hagen Dias kick), :37
Individual Statistics
Rushing — B: Kyle Coffin 9-(-6), Jayson Dyer 14-67-1, Dan Murphy 1-6; D: Markus Andrews 7-80-1, Jackson Hart 12-81-2, Ray Gramlich 10-60.
Passing — B: Kyle Coffin 17-22-72-1; D: Jackson Hart 8-12-63-1-1.
Receiving — B: Brady Kundel 3-31, Hagen Dias 7-3, Kayden Fortes 3-21, Josh Ferguson 3-12, Dan Murphy 1-5; D: Ray Gramlich 4-22, Jayden Nunes-Medeiros 2-17, Markus Andrews 1-22, Derek Stevens 1-2-1.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: 'A statement'; Dartmouth's defense shuts down Barnstable to hand Red Hawks second loss
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