While the Brunswick School offense was firing on all cylinders, it was the defense made some huge plays when it mattered most during Saturday’s game against perennial powers Avon Old Farms.
Keyed by a goal line stance, stellar interceptions and massive sack on the final play of the game, the Bruins exacted revenge on the Winged Beavers from last year and came away with the 27-21 victory during the home opener at Cosby Field.
“This feels great,” Brunswick School head coach Jarrett Shine said. “We’ve had a long-standing rivalry against Avon. We lost to them last year, beat them two years ago and it’s just a battle every single year. We knew going into this that we needed the first conference win. We had to play very physical football and I’m glad we came away with the W.”
The victory moves Brunswick to 2-0 overall.
“This felt really great,” Brunswick School quarterback Nick Henkel said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more out of my teammates. They gave every single bit of their effort for every single play for all four quarters. Avon is always such a great team and we really did gut it out today.”
With Avon marching down the field after a 22-yard completion from quarterback Jesse Walsh to Kyle Anderson, a person foul penalty against Brunswick and a 19-yard completion to Mark Michaud on a fourth down and nine, the Winged Beavers had a first down and goal at the Brunswick trailing 27-14.
After a first down where there was no gain, courtesy of Brunswick’s John Fox, the trio of Fox, McKinley Frantz and Harrison Caponiti denied Avon again of six points.
The defensive line for the Bruins did the rest on third and fourth down, not giving Walsh any time to find an open receiver.
“I give a lot of credit to our defense,” Shine said. “We kept our eye on the prize. We knew that we had a solid defense and knew they were a smart, physical team that had they had a nose for the ball. I am so happy that we played hard-nosed, downhill football and came away with the stops when we needed it.”
From there the offense took over at its one yard line. Although Brunswick didn’t tally any points on the ensuing drive, they were able to get the ball to the Avon 48 and eat up just over six minutes from the clock in the process.
“We have a very smart offensive coordinator with Joe Early, have a very smart quarterback and a lot of receivers and guys on the offensive line are smart. We knew we wanted to take some time off the clock, but at the end it was going to help us.”
With only 3:18 on the clock, Avon wasn’t finished. Facing a second down and 10 at the Brunswick 49, Walsh stepped back and found Michaud for 41 yards. Two plays later, the Winged Beavers found the end zone and cut the Brunswick lead to 27-21.
Again, it was the defense that stepped up big. Brunswick recovered the onside kick. Although the Bruins went three and out and gave Avon the ball with 10.6 seconds to play, a sack by senior lineman Patrick Adamo ended the game and started the Brunswick celebration.
“It feels amazing,” said Brunswick running back Jason Kennedy. “The game came down to the wire, but we came through and everybody stuck together. We came out with the win and it was great. It was very important for us to get a good start in our league. Avon is always a good team, so to come out here and knock them off in the first home game of the year is great.”
After both teams exchanged stalled drives to start the game, Brunswick broke through first. After the defensive line forced Avon to turn the ball over on downs to start the second quarter, Brunswick gained control of the ball at Avon 40.
On the first play from scrimmage, Henkel ran out of the pocket and found Sean Morris down the Avon sideline, who caught the ball at the 10-yard line and ran it in the rest of the way for the touchdown with 9:26 to play in the half.
Once again the Brunswick defense helped pace the offense to end zone. With less than two minutes to play in the half, Fox netted the interception and ran the ball back to the Avon 23. Three plays later, Henkel found Kennedy in the flat and Kennedy ran through two defenders en route to the 18-yard touchdown and 14-0 lead with 43.1 seconds to play.
However, the 14-point lead didn’t last long, as Avon found the end zone with a 46-yard touchdown completion and time expired in the first half and made the score 14-7.
After forcing Avon three and out on its first drive of the second half, Brunswick made the most of its first time with the ball. After a four-yard run by Kennedy to bring the ball to midfield, Henkel threw a bullet to Spencer Decker in the flat for a 22-yard completion.
Three plays later, Henkel eluded two defenders, ran towards the Brunswick sideline and found Sean Amill, who made a diving catch in the end zone and somehow stayed in bounds for the 11-yard touchdown to make the score 21-7 with 8:07 left in the third.
“Nick is definitely maturing as a quarterback,” Shine said. “As a quarterback he’s taking control of our offense and has a lot of confidence right now. That’s going to help him going into the rest of the season.”
From the start of the contest, the Bruins had revenge on its mind. In a season in which Brunswick claimed the New England Prep School championship, it was a 49-34 loss to Avon at the start of the season that was the only blemish for the Bruins last year.
“Right after we lost to them at the beginning of the season last year, we had a chip on our shoulders that we wanted to beat Avon going into next year,” Shine said. “Obviously we were thinking more about the rest of the season, but we still had Avon on our minds. We wanted to win today to beat Avon, but also because we wanted to start our league play right. We needed this game to keep the momentum going.”
“We always have a chip on our shoulders,” Kennedy said. “It’s always tough going into their place and losing like we did last year. But we fought back this year and came back strong.”
