A power outage didn’t prevent Westwood from posting a lights-out Tri-Valley League ‘road’ win vs. Medfield

When the Westwood football team took a 7-6 halftime lead over host Medfield in Friday night’s Tri-Valley League matchup, both teams were thwarted from taking the same field for the second half after a power outage darkened the lights at Medfield’s home field.

The power failure led to one of the light stanchions going dark, leaving the other three dimmed lights to flicker intermittently when they were restarted. It prompted school and game officials to reconsider the viability of staging the game at the venue in such a compromised condition.

Facing a potential shortage of officials, and unwilling to reschedule the game the next day out of concern about a short window of preparation for the following week’s game, administrators weighed their options and came up with an impromptu solution: relocate the game to Westwood’s stadium, some six miles away, where both teams were bused for the resumption of the second half.

While the power outage caused a huge disruption — with fans, officials, and staff members all jumping in their cars to make the trip to Westwood — it didn’t prevent the Wolverines from submitting a lights-out performance in the second half of a 21-6 victory on their home turf, which went into the books as a conference road win.

“It was a little chaotic,” said third-year Westwood coach Brad Pindel, referring to the 30-minute delay it took to relocate the game. “The one thing that I thought was a huge plus for us was that our captains and our seniors did a great job to keep our guys focused.

“That’s out of the norm, for sure. We’re going home, and they used that to get our guys fired up. Everyone bought in, and we came out with a little more fire”

On the opening drive of the second half, the Wolverines marched down the field and senior Antonio Maroun dove into the end zone from 6 yards out, pushing Westwood’s lead to 14-6 after the PAT.

Quarterback Brendan Donegan tossed two touchdowns. The senior captain connected with Jack McDaniels for a 5-yard strike in the second quarter before finding senior Thomas Kane on a 35-yard strike in the fourth quarter.

“I think we executed better in the second half,” Pindel said. “We couldn’t get into a groove in the first half. Our offensive line took over in the second half. Once we got into a groove, it opened everything up.”

Bridgewater-Raynham 39, Durfee 15 — Junior Dawson DuBose rumbled for 184 yards and three scores on 16 carries, powering the Trojans (2-3) to a Southeast Conference victory.

“The best thing about him is that he’s a slasher but has breakaway speed,” said B-R coach Lou Pacheco. “At any level, you have a thumper and a guy that scamper. He can do both and you don’t see that very often. He’ll jump step if the line misses every block.”

The 5-foot-10-inch, 195-pound junior carried the Trojans to a big first half lead, one B-R’s defense safeguarded with strong play from its linebackers.

Junior middle linebacker Amir Abasse forced a strip sack that senior outside linebacker Delonte Jenkins recovered.pounced on for the fumble recovery, while junior outside linebacker Myles Beckett recorded 12 tackles and a sack.

“Our linebackers were unbelievable today,” said Pacheco. “We literally work on ballhawking drills every practice on defense. With all the option plays that Durfee runs, it puts a lot of stress on the linebackers today but they were up to the task and played great.”

Dover-Sherborn 18, Bellingham 12 — Emilio Cabey hauled in an over-the-shoulder touchdown pass with 25 seconds to go, completing a 15-point fourth quarter for the Raiders (5-0) to take the Tri-Valley victory.

Governor’s Academy 27, BB&N 20 — Matt Shaw punched in a pair of short touchdowns to lead the Governors (2-1) to the Independent League win. Henry Machnik ran for a 38-yard score and connected with Ronan Hanafin on a 56-yard TD strike for BB&N (1-2).

Lowell Catholic 48, Georgetown 8 — Senior captain Nick Sawyer had four first-half touchdowns on short runs for the Crusaders (5-0), who earned at least a share of the Commonwealth League title.

Rivers 52, Tabor 7 — Sophomore quarterback Max Stevelman threw for three touchdowns, lifting the Red Wings (3-0) to an ISL9 victory. Senior Nick Santaniello and sophomore Avi Redman each notched two scores on the ground in the balanced offensive onslaught.

South Shore Voc-Tech 14, Cape Cod Tech 12 — South Shore’s Jared Madden (7-of-10 passing, 77 yards, 13 rushes, 35 yards 1 TD) found the end zone with a touchdown and winning two-point conversion in overtime to beat Cape Cod Tech. The Vikings improved to 3-2 and remained undefeated in Mayflower Athletic Conference play.

St. Sebastian’s 24, Belmont Hill 8 — Senior Jordan Atkinson had a 55-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown, and sophomore Justin Bourque and senior Landon Bailey each had rushing touchdowns for the Arrows (3-0) in the ISL7.

Tri-County 22, Diman 21 — Freshman quarterback Declan Walker scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on runs of 1 and 6 yards, lifting the Cougars (1-3) to a Mayflower Athletic Conference Vocational Large Division victory, delivering Cougars coach Andy Gomes his first career win.

Worcester Academy 25, Austin Prep 7 — Keith Sarkodieh hauled in touchdown passes of 25, 30 and 40 yards — all in the first half — as he led Worcester Academy (3-0) to a NEPSAC win. Lio Griffin-Hill pulled down a 40-yard pass for a score in the fourth quarter, and quarterback Alexander Emery threw all four touchdown passes in the victory.

Ethan Kagno, AJ Traub, Eamonn Ryan and Lenny Rowe contributed to this report.