Cheshire defeats Dexter Southfield to win Danny Smith Bowl

BROOKLINE Various teams might falter after taking a shot to the mouth early Cheshire Academy decided to get right back up and keep fighting Saturday and relied on Keegan Croucher to lead the charge The Ole Miss commit finished -of- passing for yards and a pair of touchdowns Saturday as the Cats - rallied from an early deficit to capture the NEPSAC s Danny Smith Bowl with a - win over Dexter Southfield - It s massive Croucher revealed of the supremacy It s crazy It feels awesome It was a huge turnout at present with the crowd so it feels good to bring it home It was a rematch of a regular-season contest from Oct which Dexter Southfield won in a nail-biter - This time around Dexter Southfield had a great start Michael Thomas returned the challenge s opening kickoff yards A penalty at the end of the play set his gang up in the red zone instantly Just moments later junior running back Lamarri Sanchez-Coleman plowed into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown rush providing Dexter Southfield an immediate - advantage just into play However Cheshire Academy swung back with authority as the second quarter began Croucher led his gang downfield and fired a bullet toward the end zone Aidan Good hauled in the pass for a -yard touchdown reception as the Cats jumped in front - with left in the frame We don t like to do anything easy explained Cheshire Academy coach Bill Mella We like to do things the hard way My unit is very resilient We expected it We expected them to make plays That s a very very talented association and they played a tough Class A schedule this year So we expected them to make plays That s just the kind of way we handle it You make a play we re going to make more The Cats did just that Later on with left in the second quarter Croucher dumped a pass over the middle to Jojo Williams The senior wideout knifed his way through traffic for a -yard touchdown reception as Cheshire made it a - contest The Cats would tack on to their lead with a -yard field goal by Nolan Pendergast jumping ahead - at intermission As play resumed for the third quarter Cheshire Academy picked up right where it left off Michael Caulfield punched in a four-yard touchdown rush as the Cats extended their lead to - with left in the stanza Dexter Southfield responded with one of its best drives shortly afterward as Sanchez-Coleman located the end zone for a second time with a four-yard touchdown run himself Rory Funke added a two-point rush slicing it to a - ballgame But just as the third quarter concluded the Cats struck again Jacob Marz finished things with a nine-yard touchdown scamper as Cheshire took a - lead It was too much for Dexter Southfield to overcome Funke would connect with Charlie Hanafin for a seven-yard touchdown pass to make it - with remaining to cap the meeting s scoring Dexter Southfield is slated to graduate seniors including Hanafin a West Virginia commit and Anthony Hall UNC Both standouts will be finishing heading off to their colleges early in January Every season s a little different announced Dexter Southfield coach Casey Day Certainly with the move up to Class A this year it was a lot different in particular than all of my other years here at Dexter We just talked speedily to our group to the band about the seniors leaving a legacy Moving forward in Class A I think the big thing is that we ll look back on this season How the seniors picked up on where the guys from the past have left off and brought the operation to a whole nother level Going to a Class A Bowl event seven straight bowl games now But obviously this one in particular I don t think a lot of people expected us to be here