Former Mansfield Players Square Off Against Foxborough

(The following is a game featuring former standout Foxborough and Mansfield football players using EA Sports NCAA College Football 'O7. Only players who have graduated are eligible to players and they were created by the create player feature in the game. This is third pretend meeting before the all-stars as previous games were presented in the Foxboro Reporter and the Mansfield News. This year, Mansfield elected to go just with players coached by Mike Redding during his tenure. The game was simulated.)

Tension were running on the high side when the Foxborough Legends entered a packed Al DeSimone Stadium for their showdown with the Mansfield Leaders in front a packed house of 40,862.

And they were running even higher when the game was over. In a highly-spirited contest, featuring a controversial call in the final minutes, Foxborough was able to hold on for a 27-20 win.

Led by quarterback John Sperrazza, Mansfield was able to to the ball down to the Foxborough's 3-yard line with a 1:21 to go, but the Leaders were whistled for a questionable personal foul for celebrating, moving the ball to the 18-yard line.

Two plays later, Sperrazza went back to Gilson for a 14-yard touchdown in the right corner of the end zone. Matt Alksinas added the extra-point to cut the lead to seven points, but the time lost because of the penalty, wasted value time off the clock.

The Leaders went for the onside kick, but Foxborough's Dave Flynn, who had an outstanding day of special teams, recovered the ball and the Legends ran out the clock for the hard-fought victory.

"Both teams were tough out there today," said Legends' coach Jackson Martin. "I thought we had them early, but Mansfield fought back. There were a lot of good football players out there."

Foxborough was able to build up a 17-3 lead as Mansfield was hurt by injuries early, losing linebacker Joe Todd and corner back Sam Butler to ankle injuries in the first quarter.

The Leaders were bottled up by the Legends' defense as they put eight players on the front line to stop Mansfield's Omari Walker.

"The injuries sure didn't help," said Leader head coach Red Michaelson. "Our game plan wasn't to throw the ball as much, but Foxborough really focused stopping the run game. (Ken Goodwin) (Gary) Hobel and (Chris) Sweatman were really tough all game long. Fortunately, we were able to make some changes at halftime to get back into the game."

Offensively, Martin has his legends in a mostly running set all night, using Power-I, wishbone and Maryland I formation to move the ball against the Leaders. George Morrisette earned MVP honors at running back with 33 carries for 154 yards and a touchdown.

Foxborough had to rely on Morrisette when Chris Cady suffered a leg injury and missed almost three quarters.

On their first drive of the game, Ali Mourtada named a 24-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead for the Legends. That was followed up by a five-yard run by Morrisette behind the blocking of Tom Nalen, Chris Redd and Bryan Woollard for a 10-0 lead.

Tom Creedon. a third down stop, and John Armstrong. a sack, came up with big defensive plays to prevent Foxborough from adding to their point total.

With 1:12 left to go in the first half, Alksninis added a 29-yard field goal to cut the margin to seven at 10-3, but Foxborough came right back as quarterback Drew Connolly found Stephan Neville open for a 23-yard score as time ran out in the first half for a 17-3 lead.

"That was tough," said Michaelson. "We had started to play better defense before Neville was able to get behind us for the touchdown."

While the first half belonged to Foxborough, it was a different story in the third quarter as the Leaders got back into the game. Alksninis got things started with a 23-yard field goal, making it 17-6 in favor of Foxborough.

Walker then got loose for a 44-yard score up the middle, out-racing the Legends' defense into the end zone, making it 17-13 after three quarters.

Mourtada kicked a 22-yard field goal to start the fourth quarter for a 20-13 lead at the 8:42 mark.

The next time, Foxborough got the ball, there were faced with a third down and inches from the Mansfield 16-yard line. Morrisette was able to just get the first down and as the Leaders lost linebacker Mark DeGirolamo on the play. Connolly was able to find Tim Cheney into the end zone for an 8-yard score and a 27-13 lead.

That set the stage for the controversial personal foul call on Mansfield that fans will be talking about for years.

FINAL STATS:
At Al DeSimone Field:

Foxborough 10 7 0 10-27

Mansfield 0 3 10 7-20

First Quarter:

Fox-Mourtada 25-yard field goal, 9:48

Fox-Morrisette 9-yard run (Mourtada kicked), 5:20

Second Quarter:

Man-Matt Alksninis 29-yard field goal, 1:02

Fox-Neville 23-yard pass from Connolly (Mourtada kicked), 0:00

Third Quarter: Man-Alksninis 23-yard field goal, 8:48

Man-Walker 44-yard run (Alksninis kicked), 3:17

Fourth Quarter: Fox-Mourtada 22-yard field goal, 8:42

Fox-Cheney 8-yard pass from Connolly (Mourtada kicked), 3:13

Man-T. Gilson 14-yard pass from Sperrazza, 0:55

Foxborough Stats: Passing-Connolly 16-21-197-2-0

Rushing-Morrisette 33-154, McCarthy 33-154, S. Carew 1-11, Saltzman 1-2, Cady 6-2, Connolly 9-10

Receiving-Cheney 4-25, Holmes 3-35, Neville 3-37, Morrison 2-55, Traux 2-17, Morrisette 1-8, McCarthy 1-20.

Tackling-Goodwin 9, S. Carew 9, Neville 7, Whitty 5, Sweatman 5, Rex 5, B. Carew 4, D. Sullivan 4, M. Guy 2, Hobel 2, Morrisette 2, Morsehead 2, Connolly 2, Manning 1, Newsome 1, Mullaney 1, Mogan 2, Flynn 2, Evans 1, Contee 1 Sacks: Sweatman, 1, Guy 1.

Mansfield Stats
Passing-Sperrezza 26-41-263-1-1.

Rushing-Walker 20-28, Sperrezza 7-16, French 1-3, Gary DeGirolamo 2-2

Receiving-McDermott 8-84, Gilson 7-74, Taylor 4-51, Gary DeGirolamo 3-12, Murphy 3-26, Walker 1-5

Tackles-Moore 11, D. Sullivan 11, Bulter 10, Copithrone, 7, Guilfoy 6, M. DeGirolamo 5,  G. DeGirolamo 5, Armstrong 4, Mallett 4, Taylor 2, Carpentar 2, Todd 2, R. Smith 1, Vallett 1, Connell 1, Hill, Albany 1, Farrell 1.
Sacks-D. Sullivan, 1, Armstrong 1

MVP'S; Foxborough-George Morrisette, Mansfield-David Sullivan

ROSTERS-Foxborough-Ryan Morsehead, Rick Cetrone, Bill Rex, Dan Sullivan, Ali Mourtada, Drew Connolly, John Manning, Ken Farrow, Ross Giffune, Tim Callahan, Brian Gasboro, Kevin McCarthy, Chris Cady, Jon Lancaster, Dan Saltzman, Dave Flynn, Mike Delaney, Shawn Carew, Bryan Carew, Jim Artz, George Morrisette, Tim Cheney, Lamar Newsome, Stephan Neville, Mike Myers, George Morrison, Aaron Dufour, Lloyd Traux, Luke Drayton, Bryan Wollard, Chris Redd, Chris Booth, Rick Nalen, Chris Sweatman, Gary Hobel, Leo Burril, James McLaughlin, Jim Fraser, Tom Nalen, Jeff Parker, Chris Evans, Dave Guenard, Brett Mullaney, Dennis Walsh, Tim Borges, Kenny Goodwin, Scott Contee, Tim Mogan, Wilson Whitty, Dave Fitzhenry, A.J. Dooley, Max Guy, Ray Forsythe.
Mansfield-Shawn Doherty, Mike Albany, Jeff Creedon, Tom Creedon, Jim Connors, Matt McLaughlin, Fred Vallett, Tony Forte, Rob Smith, Kerry Taylor, Mark Copithrone, Gary DeGirolamo, Mark DeGirolamo, Adam Young, Shawn Kezer, Matt Alksninis, Jeff Devine, Dan Galvin, Josh Hines, Matt Kelley, Mike Felton, Dave Felton, John Armstrong, Paul Smith, Adam Izzo, Ryan Murphy, Mike McPherson, Powell Simpson, Ross Landers, Bruce Burley, Jon Connell, Brian Lavery, Curtis Sullivan, Brett Pelchat, Rodney Chance, Mark Carpentar, Kevin Cinnelli, Tom Gilson, Alex French, Karl Boettger, Mike Lundell, Dave Lundell, Tom Farrell, Mark Gilson, Tony Scarpellini, Steve Guilfoy, Greg Martell, Brett McDermott, Sean Gray, Ryan Gray, Jeff Hill, Mark DeGirolamo, Adam Bourget, Sam Bulter, Jamie Sullivan, Omari Walker, Joe Todd, Jeff Mallett, Steve Moore, David Sullivan, Kerry Taylor, Tony Forte, Fred Vallett, Matt McLaughlin, John Sperrazza,  Sean McConnell, Ryan McLean.

Not able to make it to the Mansfield-Foxborough Thanksgiving football game? Follow all the action with our . Kickoff is Thursday at 10 a.m.