FOXBOROUGH – The Falmouth Clippers (13-0) defeated the Marblehead Magiciains (11-1) 34-13 with long scoring drives to win the MIAA D2 football championship. Falmouth quarterback Nick Couhig and fullback Gates Kelliher worked the triple option to perfection having a hand in all five Clippers touchdowns. Couhig threw a 33 yard scoring strike to Jean Vasquez to get things started in the first quarter and scored on a 2 yard plunge in the second, while Kelliher added a 3 yard TD in the 2nd quarter and two more in the fourth on runs of 3 and 38 yards.
Falmouth assembled scoring drives of 70 yards on 7 plays, 85 yards on 10 plays, 95 yards on 15 plays and 65 yards on 11 plays among their tallies. Kelliher was also a force on defense.
Marblehead got a 27 yard touchdown pass from Drew Gally to Manning Sears in the third quarter to cut the gap to 21-6 with 2:30 remaining, before a Kelliher TD at 7:13 of the third madie it 27-6 Falmouth. Gally hit Derek Marino with an 8 yard scoring strike in the fourth quarter with 5:07 left to make in 27-13 Falmoth, but then Kelliher scored for the Clippers from 38 yards out to push the score to 34-13.
Falmouth outgained Marblhead in total offense from scrimmage, 390 to 215
Falmouth coach Derek Almeida, ending his third season, is now 21-10, while Mablehead coach Jim Rudloff is now 71-21 after 8 seasons.
Game Broadcast – Rick Moore and Paul Ingram
