Bridgewater State Wins Cranberry Bowl Once Again

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. -- The familiar chant could be heard loud and clear on the Bridgewater State University sideline.

The Cranberry Scoop, the trophy given annually to the winner of the Cranberry Bowl between the Bears and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy football teams, had just been retained by BSU, and now it was time to celebrate.

"Scoop! Scoop! Scoop! Scoop!'' is what the Bears yelled out after closing out a superb regular season in style on Saturday afternoon.

Not only did BSU improve its record in the Cranberry Bowl to 25-8-1 by getting past the Buccaneers, 31-21, with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, but the Bears also accomplished some other important items before a crowd of 2,034 at Clean Harbors Stadium.

They are now 9-1, becoming only the fifth team in program history to win that many games. BSU also added to its portfolio that will be put on display as the Bears, ranked fourth in the New England Div. 3 poll, attempt to land an at-large berth in the NCAA Div. 3 tournament.

And the victory over the Buccaneers gave BSU a positive finish to its 48-year stay in the New England Football Conference. The Bears will be part of the nine-team Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference next fall.

BSU, which will be in an ECAC bowl game if it doesn't get a NCAA bid, had just one regular-season blemish, but it was a costly one. The Bears were blanked by NEFC Bogan Division champion Framingham State on Sept. 21, costing them a spot in the conference title game, but they rebounded and finished with a .900 winning percentage.

"I thought that was realistic,'' said coach Chuck Denune of a 9-1 season. "I knew we had the makings of a great team. That's what makes me so proud of them. They were able to come out and not just have the potential but live up to it, too.

"We play old-school football – great defense, run the ball, throw the football and don't get beat in the kicking game.''

That was on display against the Buccaneers (5-4), who held a 21-17 lead when the fourth quarter began.

The Bears, though, put together back-to-back scoring drives that were engineers by quarterback Mike McCarthy, who became the first player in the 34-year-old history of the Cranberry Bowl to win the Lee Harrington Most Valuable Player award twice.

Starting late in the third quarter, BSU went on a 14-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard McCarthy touchdown run for a 24-21 lead with 8:59 left in the game.

Senior cornerback Vincent Henry of Middleboro then got the ball for the Bears with an interception while in one-on-one coverage, and BSU went 69 yards in 11 plays as McCarthy finished that drive with a 22-yard TD run with only 2:58 remaining.

In the two game-turning drives that ate up 12:14, McCarthy gained 80 yards on 13 carries. He finished with 180 yards on 29 carries and also threw a TD pass for BSU, which is 15-1 in the last 16 Cranberry Bowl games.

"I was thinking that we've just got to eat the clock,'' said McCarthy, whose team dominated time of possession, 42:30-17:30, and total offense, 436-263. "We had to get first downs, one first down at a time and take as much time off the clock as we could.''

Mass. Maritime had taken a 7-0 lead on its first possession, going 78 yards in 13 plays with Stefan Gustafson scoring on a 1-yard run and Brockton's Brandon Rodrigues adding the kick.

BSU, which lost one of its top defensive players, Tate Doehler of Lakeville, in the first series due to a hand injury, tied the game with 2:40 left in the opening quarter when Matthew Green of Stoughton caught a 16-yard TD pass from McCarthy. A 1-yard run by Caleb Gelsomino with 11:01 left in the half put the Bears ahead, 14-7.

Mass. Maritime, which played the final 47 minutes without quarterback Mike Stanton (ankle injury), tied the game with another Gustafson 1-yard run with 8:43 to go in the half.

Following a Jarred Diorio 20-yard field goal that put BSU up, 17-14, early in the second half, quarterback John Trudel gave the Buccaneers their 21-14 edge with a 9-yard run with 7:33 to go in the third quarter.

The two fourth-quarter TDs enabled BSU to make it six straight wins with a postseason game on the horizon Nov. 17.

"I think our body of work is as good as anybody out there,'' said Denune, hoping for an invitation to the NCAAs. "I think we're going to be the only team in the region with one loss that doesn't have an (automatic qualifier). I think we deserve it. I'd love to see it, but we'll take what we can get. We've got another football game for our seniors.''