The Stoughton High football team shocked The Hockomock League Friday night, shutting out highly touted and highly ranked Mansfield, 8-0, in what could be regarded as one of the upsets of the year.
Stoughton snapped Mansfield’s 14-game win streak and beat the defending Hockomock League Champions and defending Division 2 Super Bowl Champions for the first time since 2000.
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Both teams are now 2-1 on the season.
“It means a lot,” Black Knight head coach Greg Burke said. “We played hard. They are a great team and they are well coached. We’re getting better every game.”
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Stoughton used a first half field goal, a fourth quarter safety, and a fourth quarter field goal to get 8.
Meanwhile, this was the lowest offensive output for Mansfield since their opening game of last season when they scored only 5 points in a loss. The Hornets had scored 67 points in their first two games this season, both come-from-behind wins.
“We didn’t play well,” Mansfield coach Mike Redding said. “The weather didn’t help but it’s no excuse, they dealt with it. The defense, which struggled in weeks one and two, played great tonight. Our offense, which had been great in weeks one and two, didn’t show up.”
Junior cornerback Marcus Middleton set the tone early for the Stoughton defense, out jumping a Mansfield’s Mike Blackman to grab an interception on Mansfield’s first offensive play.
“I think it was really important because we went into this game as underdogs and everyone expected us to lose,” Middleton said of his interception. “That just set our confidence and we made momentum off of it.”
Stoughton was unable to capitalize on the interception when senior quarterback Alex Fernandes threw an interception three plays later. However, the Black Knights’ defense continued to dominate and stopped the Hornets on fourth down the next series.
The two offenses went back and forth, again with Stoughton stopping the Hornets on fourth down. After their second fourth down stop, sophomore Aaron Mack busted through two Mansfield defenders for a 46 yard run, setting up the only scoring play of the first half, a 30-yard field goal by Fernandes with 37 seconds left in the second quarter.
“[Fernandes] had a heck of a game,” Burke said. “He played awesome.”
Mansfield tried to gain some momentum going into halftime, but Middleton came up with this second pick of the night off of a tip from a Mansfield wide receiver. Stoughton, however, was unable to capitalize.
As the second half started, the rain began to pick up and both teams kept the ball on the ground for the most of the remainder of the game.
Late in the third, though, with Mansfield driving into Black Knight territory, Stoughton junior Aaron Calixte came up with a big interception to give Stoughton the ball at the start of the fourth quarter.
Stoughton then marched down the field inside the Hornets’ five-yard line but were stopped on fourth down with two yards to go.
Then, with 7:13 left to go in the game quarter, the turning point came. Mansfield snapped the ball on their own three and pitched to the left, where Stoughton quickly closed in and tackled Mansfield back Greg Donahue in the end zone, forcing a safety, and expanding their lead to 5-0.
Stoughton was unable to do anything when they got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff, but their defense yet again came to the rescue. With just over three minutes to go, Stoughton forced another fumble and Calixte was able to pounce on it.
“They’re physical up front, their linebackers are physical,” Redding said of the Black Knight defense. “I thought tonight their secondary kids covered well. Nothing was easy.”
On their next drive, Malachi Baugh had two runs of 20-plus yeards to get Stoughton in scoring position.
But, later in the drive, Stoughton was again faced with a fourth down in Mansfield’s redzone. This time, Burke elected to kick the field goal and Fernandes hit his second of the night, putting the Black Knights up 8-0 with just 40 seconds left.
On the kickoff, Mansfield fumbled and Stoughton recovered and were able to kill the clock with a kneel down.
On a rain-soaked night where both teams were limited in the passing game, Mansfield backs Blayne Taylor and Donahue led the ground attack. But, turnovers and penalties ultimately doomed the Hornets.
“Maybe this is a turning point,” Redding said, “and we use it to wake up and get a little dose of humility.”
Mansfield will look to rebound next Friday at King Philip, in what will be the first Kelly-Rex Division game of the season for the Hornets.
“We’ll find out what we’re made of. We’ll show up a week from Friday [and] we’ll play King Philip tough,” Redding said.