KP Football Continues Winning Ways at Foxborough

For a moment, it looked like Foxborough could have pulled off an upset.

Halfway though the second quarter with a 7-0 lead, the Foxboro Warriors were getting some of the lucky breaks needed if they were going to beat the King Philip Warriors.

By the end of the first half, though, King Philip turned a seven-point deficit into a 14-point lead. By the end of the game, King Philip had succeeded in spoiling homecoming weekend for Foxborough with a 28-7 win.

After punting the ball to the KP 6-yard line on their opening series, the Foxborough defense looked strong in preventing King Philip from getting anywhere. After a botched King Philip punt that saw the ball go from the KP 11 yard line to the KP 25, Alex Pacitti ran in the return for the touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

The touchdown was all Foxborough had to celebrate this evening. Struggling to consistently run the ball well, King Philip resorted to the passing game. The strategy paid off towards the end of the half, when KP QB John Dillon found Joe Cochrane for a 30-yard touchdown reception to tie the game at 7 with less than four minutes left in the half

Bad luck struck Foxborough when QB Nick Sestito threw his first interception of the game to Mike Winbourne, who set King Philip up at the Foxboro 30-yard line with 2:02 to play in the half.

Mere seconds later, Dillon found the end zone on a 30-yard pass, but this time it was Sam McDonald making the reception to take a 14-7 lead.

As if the game was repeating itself, Sestito’s pass was intercepted by Nate Malone, who was tackled at the Foxboro 31 with 1:46 left in the half.

“The defense really got us back in that game. Two turnovers back-to-back we’re able to capitalize on right at the half,” said King Philip coach Brian Lee.

Getting to the Warriors 5-yard line on a series of runs from Charles Ruffin, Dillon simply threw pass after pass until he could get a completion. After three straight incomplete passes from within five yards, Dillon finally found Ruffin for a two-yard touchdown reception with two seconds remaining in the half.

A nearly unstoppable throwing game and bad mistakes by Foxborough worked more than favorably for King Philip. What could have been a tie game was slowly getting away from Foxborough.

“That is what we thought was our best opportunity to move the ball. That’s what was needed to move the ball, because up front running the ball was tough,“ said Lee.

Turnovers continued to hurt Foxborough as a sack and fumble caused by KP’s Malone was recovered by Winbourne and returned for a touchdown.

“You can’t give the ball away, and that’s what we did,” said Foxborough coach Jack Martinelli.

The King Philip defense continued to stuff the Foxboro offense. With three sacks, two interceptions, and a fumble, no one could beat King Philip on this day.

“The way we play defense, it’s going to be hard to get those scores back on us,” said Lee.

In addition to the turnovers, good field position for KP made what could have been longer drives into quick, one-play drives for a score.

“We gave them those points. We gave them good field position with our own turnovers. Our kids did as good of a job against Ruffin as anybody’s done and the kid threw the ball well, don’t get me wrong,” said Martinelli.

John Dillon led the game in passing going 8-17 with 125 yards and 3 touchdowns. Joe Cochrane had three receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown. Sam McDonald caught two balls for 41 yards and a touchdown. Charles Ruffin ran for 103 yards and caught a touchdown reception.

On defense for KP, Jesse Sullivan had a sack; Nate Malone and Mike Winbourne both had a sack and an interception.

Sestito led the [Foxborough] Warriors in passing with 52 yards passing and two interceptions. Greg Stamatov caught four passes for 57 yards. Kiivone Howard ran for 24 yards on seven attempts.

The win improves King Philip to 6-1 overall, while Foxboro is 3-4.

King Philip will enjoy a bye week before battling Attleboro on Nov. 4 at 7pm in Wrentham. Foxborough will play host to East Providence High School on Oct. 28 at 7pm