The game that figured to be among the least competitive in the recent history of the Waltham/Brockton Thanksgiving rivalry wound up ranking among the most dramatic of all-time.
Coming into yesterday's matchup between the 3-7 Hawks and the 7-3 playoff-bound Boxers, just about the only ones giving Waltham a serious chance at the upset were the moms and girlfriends.
And even they were probably just trying to be supportive.
But there the Hawks stood late in the third quarter in a tie game with one of the top-ranked teams in the state. Down 21-0 just seven minutes into the game, and 28-7 midway through the second quarter, the home team had rallied from three scores down for a 28-28 contest on a 32-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Ivan Colon to senior tight end Kevin O'Brien and extra point from senior Ken Whittier.
The crowd was into the game. The momentum was pulsating through the Waltham sideline. Brockton was on its heels.
To the shock of most in attendance - especially the sparse gathering on the Boxers' side of the field - this was a ballgame.
``We were moving the ball on offense and we just had to make some plays on defense,'' said senior running back/defensive back Jason Genece. ``When Ivan had that throw back (across the field) to O'Brien, we pretty much knew we were right back in it.''
In it the Hawks stayed until the final seconds of the would-be upset of epic proportions.
Brockton took advantage of a Waltham turnover and marched 54 yards on nine plays for a 35-28 lead with 3:11 left, then the Hawks came up a yard short of the first down on a fourth-and-14 reception to the Brockton 30 with nine seconds left to end the unexpected thriller.
At the conclusion of a season in which more things went wrong at key moments than right, the Hawks found a way to put it together for their finest effort of the year.
``Our seniors really never gave up all season,'' said Waltham coach Paul Mayberry. ``The teams we had played throughout the season have been tough games and our kids are used to tough games. For them to fight back to be in the position they were in today was fantastic. I was very happy for all of them.''
The morning started in what seemed to be predictable fashion. Brockton took four minutes off the clock in the opening possession and scored on a 41-yard TD run from Khalil James-Offley (156 yards rushing). After a quick Waltham three-and-out, Brockton quarterback Sam Previte unleashed a 74-yard TD pass to Jamal Johnson, who beat one-on-one coverage down the sideline.
A Waltham fumble on the opening play of the ensuing possession gave the Boxers the ball at the Waltham 29 with 3:16 left in the quarter. Two plays later, James-Offley was in for his second TD of the day and it was 21-0.
But just as the game appeared to slipping well out of hand, the Hawks showed life. Colon's 24-yard pass to senior Cameron Lett - who had a spectacular game at receiver, defensive back and on kick returns - sparked a 10-play, 55-yard drive that junior fullback Jonas Duffrene capped with a 2-yard TD burst.
Though Brockton took only two more minutes to go back up 21 on a Previte 5-yard TD rush, Waltham again fought off the ropes when it forced Brockton's first punt on the Boxers' next possession and Lett's 20-yard return put the Hawks at the Boxer 35 with 2:59 left in the half.
After a 5-yard Genece run, two rushes totaling 12 yards from junior Mike Nutile, a penalty and consecutive timeouts, Colon found sophomore Brad Kierstead for a 23-yard scoring pass with 1:29 to go in the quarter.
``We just kept on cheering each other on and telling each other it wasn't over yet,'' Colon said. ``We felt like we were coming back and we felt like we were going to win it.''
Waltham gained even more momentum heading to the half when senior Viondy Merisma's pursuit led to a Lett interception at midfield, and the Hawks went on the attack out of the break.
``They never stopped us in the first half,'' said Mayberry. ``We stopped ourselves. In the second half, we continued to do what we were doing, and that was moving the ball offensively.
``I just told them it was their last 20 minutes of football and they played those 20 minutes well.''
Facing second-and-17 on the first possession of the third, Colon found senior Adam Muise for 13 yards to the Waltham 43 and Kierstead took the next carry 27 yards to the Brockton 30. A 15-yard Duffrene draw and 7-yard Nutile thrust up the middle set up Colon's 4-yard TD run and a 28-21 game.
Duffrene then delivered a hit for a Brockton fumble on third-and-13 and the Hawks took over at the Brockton 22. Two penalties later, Colon found O'Brien for the score in what was a succession of unheralded seniors making one big play after another.
``I wasn't expecting that,'' Colon said of the big completions to Muise and O'Brien. ``But, obviously, they came through and they turned out to be the key players in the game.''
Waltham had the momentum and might have been on the verge of the tipping point in the next possession. After Muise tackled Brockton's Johnson for a 2-yard loss to the Boxer 10 on first down, senior Jeff Arico and Genece forced a fumble on the next play that Brockton recovered at its 4. Waltham then forced a negative rush to the sideline on third-and-22, but a facemask penalty was called on the stop. After much discussion among the coaches and officials, Brockton was awarded 15 yards and an automatic first down.
``The call was definitely right,'' conceded Mayberry. ``Facemask is a first down. I don't know if we had a facemask, but based on the call (the automatic first down) was definitely right.''
Six plays later, Brockton was at the Waltham 34. But the Hawks held firm when Arico and Whittier stopped a short Boxer run on second-and-4, Genece hauled James-Offley down a yard short of the first on third-and-3 and Merisma stood up Previte on fourth-and-1 for a turnover on downs.
Waltham seemed on the verge of turning the tide once again, but an interception on the first play of the next drive set the stage for what turned out to be the winning score.
``That, in my opinion, was the game,'' lamented Mayberry. ``We had stopped them. We had been able to do everything we wanted running the ball. Then we tried the pass and it didn't work.''
Down, 35-28, with 3:11 to go, Nutile covered 12 yards on two carries and Colon scampered for seven more to the Waltham 39 with 1:51 left. Colon then dumped a short pass to Kierstead, and Duffrene went 13 yards on two carries to the Brockton 46 with 1:21 to go. A 9-yard pass from Colon to Lett got the Hawks to the 37 before a stuffed run, sack and incomplete pass had them facing fourth-and-14 at the Brockton 43 with 21 seconds on the clock.
Waltham came out with an unbalanced line after a Brockton timeout and the Boxers dropped all but one lineman back in coverage. Colon hit Lett on a weakside screen along the sideline, but his lunge for a first down came up one yard short of the marker and Brockton took a knee to end the game on the next play.
