Saturday started normally for Richard Sullivan.
“I just had the usual for breakfast, eggs and everything,” Sullivan said.
But the rest of the day was anything but normal for the Bishop Brady junior, even if it didn’t surprise his football coach. Sullivan caught five touchdown passes as the Green Giants (8-1) rolled to a 46-20 win over Newport (5-4) in a Division III quarterfinal at Memorial Field.
“Rich is one of those kids where any time he’s on the field he can make a play. Two of his touchdowns came down to a jump ball and he came down with it. He’s an athlete, he’s the guy we look to,” Brady Coach Matt Shaw said.
“When I’m looking for matchups, I’m looking for matchups for Rich where I can put him in the best position to do what he does, which is outrun everyone and catch the ball. So his five touchdowns, that doesn’t really surprise me. He had two last week and the week before that he had four. He’s all over the place. He’s just one of those kids where you know he’ll come down with it if you give him a shot.”
Brady quarterback Joe Bernard certainly knows it.
“I know that we can make plays if our offensive executes,” said Bernard, who finished with six touchdown passes. “It all starts with the line, they make good blocks and I throw it up to Rich and he can go get it. Sometimes you have to throw it on a line to him and sometimes you just have to throw it up. We just have a connection like that, so it works.”
The connection started working on Brady’s first possession as Bernard hit Sullivan on a deep post for a 45-yard score. The next time the Giants got the ball, Bernard found Sullivan on a 70-yard fly pattern to give Brady a 13-0 lead with 6:52 left in the first quarter.
“We knew that we were the better team, but we also knew that we had to come out strong,” Bernard said, “and we came out swinging.”
Bernard and Sullivan kept swinging in the second quarter as they connected three more times to give the Giants a 34-0 halftime lead.
“Our game plan was to spread them out … their front four is very big but we felt like we had a little more speed,” Shaw said. “So we wanted to have them spread out a little thinner and then try to punch holes in that, and in the first half we were rolling pretty good.”
Brady’s defensive game plan was also centered around using quickness to counter Newport’s size.
“We knew they were big so we wanted to play with a little more speed and we ran a few different blitzes that we hadn’t run all year,” Brady defensive coordinator Chase Phaneuf said. “We figured if we could maybe catch them off guard and get them moving one way, it would take them a second to get back moving the other way. And as the holes were opening up in first half, we were hitting them hard and they didn’t have many places to go.”
Lineman Craig Newcomb anchored the center of Brady’s defense, linebacker Johan Eliasson (sack) menaced on blitzes, and Sullivan and Cody Hill both came up with interceptions.
“(Hill) read everything really well on his interception,” Phaneuf said of the second-quarter play that helped keep the Giants in full control. “We knew they would be attacking the seams with their tight end, and Cody ran up and undercut the route perfectly, just like we’ve been practicing. He made it happen.”
The Tigers scored twice late in the third quarter to make it 34-14 going into the fourth. Things almost got even more interesting when Newport lineman Peter Thibault intercepted Bernard and rumbled for what looked like a 75-yard touchdown, but the run was called back due to a penalty.
The Giants pushed their lead to 40-14 on a 5-yard scoring run from Moses Murenzi with 6:42 left in the fourth. Newport answered with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Dylan McNamara to Tyler Sharron, but Brady finished the scoring, and iced the game, when Bernard connected with Hill for a 44-yard score.
Brady will now face Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough (7-2) in the D-III semifinals on Saturday.
“Our goal is to win a championship,” Bernard said, “that’s it.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)
Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough 42, Winnisquam 0
Key players: Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough – Andrew Brothers, Ryan Kelly, Thomas Robinson
Highlights/key moments: The Lakers took an early 7-0 lead on a 4-yard touchdown run from Robinson. A 35-yard touchdown pass from Kelly to Brothers on the first play of the second quarter pushed the lead to 14-0. Brothers scored two more times in the second quarter – the first on a 55-yard interception return and the second on an 8-yard rush – as the Lakers took a 28-0 halftime lead.
Records: Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough 7-2; Winnisquam 5-4