Stoughton High Football is Ready for Stretch Run

They might be billed as regular season games, but for all intents and purposes, the last three games of the season for the Stoughton High football team are de facto playoff games.

The Black Knights control their own fate—beat Foxboro, Oliver Ames and Canton over the next month and Stoughton will advance to the postseason for the first time in school history.

The Hockomock League gets two playoff berths this season, one for the Kelley-Rex champion and one for the Davenport champion. The champion is decided not based on overall record, but rather divisional record, placing an increased importance on Stoughton’s four Davenport Division games.

Stoughton is 4-4 this season, but it’s the 1-0 record in Davenport Division play (thanks to a on Oct. 1) that puts the Black Knights in a favorable position heading into the stretch run.

“This is what you live for, we’ve got our own situation—we win, we’re in, but we’re taking it one at a time,” Stoughton coach Greg Burke said.

“We know these are the most important games right here. We need to win them,” senior captain Andrew Paredes said. “It’s do or die.”

The Black Knights are coming off two straight losses, at Attleboro on Oct. 21 and to Franklin on Oct. 28. In both games, Stoughton, despite only scoring a combined 14 points on offense, had drives where they advanced the ball, but came up short, either fumbling the ball or turning the ball over on downs deep in opposing territory.

“The kids know how important this is, I think we’re ready to go,” Burke said. “It’s just a matter of executing and trying to get some touchdowns when we’re there [in opposing territory]. It’s a tough go getting them. We’ve been struggling a little bit, but I think good things are going to happen this week.”

“You just got to focus, you just got to control the ball,” Burke said. “No one wants to fumble, but it’s concentration—you fumble at this point, you really can’t play, it’s not one of those things you fumble and say it’s ok.”

In the Attleboro game, the Blue Bombardiers had success running the ball against the Black Knights. But in last Friday’s game against Franklin, the Panthers went to the air to score against Stoughton. In both games Attleboro and Franklin were able to move the chains on third down and fourth down.

Still, the Stoughton defense is the top unit in the Davenport (based on points allowed per game). Prior to these back-to-back losses, the Black Knights surrendered just 43 points over a five game stretch between the Somerset and West Springfield games.

Burke said any defensive issues over the past two weeks were not because of a “lack of effort.”

“The kids played hard,” he said. “I think we’re going to be ok the rest of the way.”

Stoughton’s slate of three games starts Friday at home against Foxboro (4-4 and 1-1 in the Davenport). A win for Stoughton keeps the Black Knights on track for the postseason; a Foxboro loss all but derails those hopes for the Warriors.

After Foxboro, Stoughton hosts Oliver Ames on Veterans’ Day (Nov. 11) and travels to Canton on Thanksgiving (Nov. 24).

“OA and Canton are two teams we’ve wanted all season, but we’ve got to keep focused on Foxboro,” senior captain Kevin Richard said. “They’re a good team…we have to play hard to win in order to get to those two teams [OA and Canton].”

“No playing around—just focus on that one game each week,” senior captain Brandon Alves said.

“We’re all excited, it’s probably one of the biggest games we’ve had here in a couple of years,” Richard said about Friday’s tilt against Foxboro.

Actually, Richard, Alves and Paredes agreed that this game against Foxboro will be the biggest game they’ve ever played in at Stoughton High, even bigger than the Thanksgiving games.

The schedule is backloaded with divisional games across the Hockomock. No team in the entire league— or has played more than two of their scheduled four divisional games heading into this week.

Baring Sharon (or Canton) playing the roll of spoiler, the Davenport Division will come down to Stoughton, Oliver Ames and Foxboro. Stoughton and Oliver Ames head into the final weeks with a 1-0 divisional record, while Foxboro already has a Davenport loss. But there’s still a lot of football to be played.

“This is it,” Burke said. “They know what it is. There’s only three games, 120 minutes and we’ve got to win them all…We’re taking it one game at a time, we’re not looking by anybody.”