By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Staff
Last Friday, the Raiders hosted the Nipmuc Regional Warriors for their home opener. Last season, Dover-Sherborn had a 1–8 regular season record and two postseason wins but were defeated by Nipmuc 43–7. This season has been a different story, with the Nipmuc game being their third game and their third win of the season. Earlier this month, the Raiders beat Southeastern Regional 20–16 on the 11th after a 22–12 win last season, and Weston 23–14 on the 18th after a 34–0 loss last year.
The Warriors scored first with a touchdown and successful point after attempt for a 7 point lead with about six minutes left in the first quarter.
A few minutes into the second quarter, the Raiders made their way up the field and handed the ball to Captain Teddy Oleyer, who made it past a Warrior to run in the ball from just over 15 yards for the Raiders’ first touchdown. Their point after attempt was unsuccessful, putting Dover-Sherborn one point behind at 7–6.
With a little over three minutes remaining in the second, the Warriors scored again and made a successful extra point, increasing their lead to 14–6.
On defense in the final moments of the half, Frank Robbins pushed past one Nipmuc player and took down the Warrior with the ball, knocking it loose. After a split second hesitation where most seemed unclear if the ball was still live, nearby Christopher Frodyma grabbed the ball and took it 40+ yards to cheers of “Run! Run!” until he reached the end zone with 0:00 left on the clock. Closing in at 14–12, the Raiders made the decision to attempt a two-point conversion. Quarterback Donald Alphas fired off a quick pass to wide receiver Charlie Barbosa, who caught it in the end zone to tie the game 14–14. After a quick celebration, the Raiders headed to the locker room while the student section, which grew steadily over the course of the game, cheered for them as they jogged off the field.
While it seemed Frodyma’s touchdown and the subsequent two-point conversion to tie going into halftime would be the climax of the game, fans from both teams were in for an extremely exciting—and nerve wracking—end of the game.
In the third quarter, Nipmuc was back in the lead after running in a touchdown and making the extra point for a score of 21–14. They increased to 27–14 after a turnover where the Warrior ran some 80 yards to score, but they were not successful on the extra point.
As the time wound down in the third quarter, Dover-Sherborn fought their way up Nipmuc’s end and Oleyer was able to push through two Warriors to get the ball into the end zone. Unfortunately, the point after attempt was not successful, and the third quarter ended with Dover-Sherborn down 27–20.
Not long into the fourth quarter, Nipmuc had another long run resulting in a touchdown and an unsuccessful point after attempt for a score of 33–20. The Warriors kicked off to sophomore Joel Sterling, who caught the ball and ran up the right side of the field, slipping through the defense and making an exciting and unexpected touchdown on the kickoff return with a little over ten minutes remaining in the game. Captain James Stefanelli added on with a successful point after attempt, with freshman Will Collins as the holder.
Soon after, a few Raiders worked together to sack a Warrior and caused a fumble deep in the Nipmuc end, giving Dover-Sherborn possession at the 25-yard line. Their first few attempts were thwarted, but on fourth down, Alphas found Oleyer deep in the end zone. Oleyer made the catch, but it was controversially called out of bounds.
Near the end zone on second down with a minute and a half remaining in the game, Oleyer made a good catch off a tough snap and pushed through into the end zone to tie the game at 33–33. Unfortunately, the point after attempt was unsuccessful, forcing the game into overtime.
During overtime, each team got the chance to score a touchdown from the 10-yard line. Nipmuc went first and earned their six points, but their point after attempt went wide. This gave Dover-Sherborn the chance to win the game if they were able to make the touchdown as well as the extra point. It was third down when Alphas handed the ball off to junior Iden Tai-Lugo, who ran left and pushed through two Nipmuc players, making it over the line for the touchdown. Unfortunately, the point after bounced off the crossbar and did not go through.
The Raiders had to regroup and let it go quickly as the game moved into double overtime. They would now get their second attempt before Nipmuc got their opportunity to rebut. On fourth down, Alphas passed the ball to Oleyer while on the run and Oleyer turned and made it into the end zone while being tackled. The Raiders then attempted a two-point conversion. Oleyer caught a high snap and went left, running into the end zone before a Warrior could get him. Now Nipmuc was given the ball. They would have to score a touchdown as well as the two-point conversion in order to tie the game once again and push it into a third overtime. They did make the touchdown, but the game came down to whether or not they could make the two-point conversion. Nipmuc ran the ball to the right, where Jinze Pang, Teddy Oleyer, and Hayden Meunier chased down the Warrior as he approached the end zone, Pang from behind, Oleyer from the side, and Meunler from in front. It was Oleyer who broke through first, tackling the Warrior around the 2-yard line.
By thwarting Nipmuc’s rebuttal, Dover-Sherborn took the hard-won win at 47–45, immediately jumping up and running to their fans to celebrate.
“You know, we just—we had to get a stop on defense, we knew we somehow had to get a stop at some point,” Head Coach Steve Ryan said after the game. “Our kicking game, you know, wasn’t on fire tonight, so we had decided to go for two at the end there—the new rules say you can go for one or two all the time but—we decided to go for two. We knew they were a good team, knew they would be able to periodically march the ball down the field, but gettin’ that two-point stop, just, was huge for us.”
On the Raiders’ exciting 3–0 start to the season, Ryan said: “There’s good excitement. We’re a young team, there’s no doubt, we have 42 guys and 19 of ‘em are freshmen, so that’s extremely young, I know, but the guys have all bought in, and they’re fired up, and worked really hard in the offseason, and it’s paying off right now.”
The Raiders’ next home game will be on Thursday, October 15th against Bellingham (2–1) at 6:00. Then they will host Medway (1–2) on the 23rd at 6:00 and Millis (1–2) on the 30th at 6:00. The Thanksgiving Day game will be at Medfield at 10:00am on November 26th.
Raiders’ schedules can be found online at: arbiterlive.com.
