Upper Cape Tech Football Remains Undefeated At 5-0

By: Dan Crowley
Published: 10/18/12

 The Upper Cape Tech Rams football team is off to its best start in school history. The Rams improved to 5-0 on Saturday with a 22-14 victory over South Shore Voc Tech. UCT (5-0, 1-0 ML) will take on one of their toughest assignments of the season Saturday when they take the boat ride to Nantucket to face the defending Division V Super Bowl Champion Whalers (3-3, 1-0 ML) in a Mayflower League Small game that could have league championship ramifications.

After surrendering a 42-yard pass play for a touchdown in the opening quarter, the Rams bounced back on a 12-yard TD run by Jon Dumont, who also tacked on the two-point conversion for an 8-6 UCT lead at halftime.

“I feel in the first half we left some points out there,” Coach Mike Hernon said. “We had a touchdown on our opening drive called back for a hold, and we were driving before the end of the half, but I think I got outside the game plan and tried getting cute and probably cost us a score. We went into the half up 8-6 and talked about finishing drives. I thought in the second half we did a better job of that, scoring on two of our three possessions.”

Dumont got right back to work in the third quarter, scoring in a 54-yard run, but this time the conversion failed, leaving the Rams up 14-6. The Vikings quickly answered, handing the ball to Andy Beckwith from 19 yards out for a TD. They then hit on the two-point conversion to tie the game.

“South Shore gave us everything we could handle on Saturday,” Coach Hernon said, “but we were able to get the critical stop we needed to secure the victory. After we went up 22-14 on a 6-yard Dumont run and two-point conversion, South Shore marched the ball down to our 12-yard line. On the next play Dylan Derby forced a fumble that Brian Murphy recovered to get us the ball back with four minutes to go. We were forced to punt and South Shore got the ball back with 2:20 remaining. They converted on a fourth and short to get the ball to our 30. On the next play, Liam Kanaley got pressure on the quarterback, forcing a high throw over the middle that Derby intercepted to seal the victory.”

The defense then stood tall and stopped the Vikings with Dylan Derby intercepting an SSV pass with 1:20 remaining to nail down the victory.

“Again, for the fourth time in five wins, we got a huge defensive stop with under two minutes to secure the win. After you have a few wins like that it becomes contagious and someone else wants to step up and make the big play, and we got that this week with Liam (Kanaley) and Dylan (Derby).”

Dumont finished the afternoon with 21 carries for 183 yards, three TDs and two, 2-point conversions. Derby had 13 carries for 64 yards, five tackles, one forced fumble and an interception.

Nantucket (3-3, 1-0 ML) is coming off a 20-14 victory last Saturday at West Bridgewater.

“Nantucket is coming off an emotional win as well, a Hail Mary with no time left against West Bridgewater, so I think both teams have some momentum to build off going into the week,” Coach Hernon added. “They are a spread team and like to get their athletes in space so we are going to need to be ready to match their speed and tempo. They are the defending league champs and D5 Super Bowl champs so the league goes through them. It is always tough playing on the island so we are going to need to bring our best come Saturday night.”

Their three losses were all nonleague, coming at the hands of Pope John Paul II (28-0), Blue Hills (32-14) and Millis (33-7).

The Whalers took a big hit with graduation, losing 13 seniors that included eight starters on defense and seven starters on offense. The biggest loss for Nantucket came at quarterback with the graduation of Division V Player of the Year Taylor Hughes. However, back for his senior season is tight end Terrell Correia at 6-7 and 280 pounds. Correia had two touchdowns this season, both passes from QB Bryan Depass.

At 6-0 and 195 pounds, Depass presents a dual threat. He has scored three times on short runs and has returned a kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown. Depass is also the place kicker and is 10-for-2 in extra points.

Junior running back Hunter Gray is the leading scorer for the Whalers this fall with four TDs, three of them on the ground and the fourth a 50-yard pass play last week from Depass.

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