The bruises and cuts may have hurt even more by Sunday, but in the long term, each and every welt should remind the members of the Old Rochester Regional Youth Football 12-and-under team of what they accomplished.

            At one point this fall, the Bulldogs were 2-3, and one more loss would have canceled them out of playoff contention within the Rhode Island & Southern Massachusetts league. That is where the players pivoted their campaign with a commitment to improve for improvement’s sake.

            “Hard work pays off” became the Bulldogs’ slogan, and the 12U’s began reaping its rewards, winning their final three regular-season games by the maximum 33-0 count, then scoring playoff victories over Dighton-Rehoboth and, in the RISMA Super Bowl, Edgewood (Cranston, Rhode Island.)

            The Pop Warner Regionals brought continued success and flowed like gravy over mashed potatoes until Saturday, when a much larger team from Hamden, Connecticut, stood in their way to a December trip to Orlando, Florida, for the national tournament.

            That trip would be earned by the green-and-gold Hurricanes, and the disappointment was written on the faces atop the white jerseys with the black numbers outlined in red. It was difficult for the Bulldogs to feel the pride that should go with the fact no other Massachusetts team had gone this far in 2022.

            “They live in the moment so much they would think this season was somehow a failure. We played incredible,” said Head Coach Dave Medeiros, who defiantly repeated to his players as the game clock spun down, “This game does not define your season. Remember who you are. You are champions.”

The 35-0 final score was unkind but largely the result of desperate plays and arguably amplified by two questionable ones.

            The ORR defense gave up only two touchdowns, one on a drive materially altered by a missed call on a brilliant, two-man tackle by James Devoll and Chase Mills, and the other during the game’s waning seconds.

            Hamden’s other three scores were the product of the Hurricanes’ defensive curtain and the Bulldogs’ desperate attempts to somehow penetrate it.

            “It’s definitely not on Giovanni, he tried his best,” said Medeiros of his quarterback, Gio Scherer.

            Early on, the ORR defense was equally dominant, with a three-and-out to begin the game. On Hamden’s next possession, Devoll sacked quarterback Lawrence Richardson for a seven-yard loss. On third-and-15 from the Hamden 40-yard line, Nicholas Giokas leapt to intercept a downfield pass, giving ORR the ball. ORR’s Wyatt Churchill was injured blocking on the play and left the field.

            Things were looking up for the Bulldogs, especially after Hamden went offsides, setting up a first-and-5, but a fumble was recovered by Hamden’s Christopher Napoleon Jr. and returned for the first touchdown of the game. Big running back Corey Smith ran the point-after into the end zone for a 7-0 Hamden lead with 3:20 remaining in the opening quarter.

            Scherer stayed cool in the pocket and threw to Benji Baptiste for first-down yardage on ORR’s next possession. Scherer would hand off to Connor Nelson for three yards and then pass to him for nine more, but Hamden again stalled the drive.

            Davon Hardy got Hamden started offensively with a 21-yard carry into ORR territory, then Aiden Deluz picked up his own fumble and ran 10 yards, then Napoleon ran eight more to the ORR 30. Napoleon’s ensuing TD run was negated by a holding penalty, but Joshua Johnson took a pass 19 yards, and it took a touchdown-saving tackle by Nelson to bring him down at the ORR four-yard line.

            Jakyi Wright would break three tackles to find the end zone and make it a two-score game.

            Midway through the second quarter, Scherer connected with Nelson for a 14-yard gain to get the Bulldogs going offensively, but Scherer’s right leg got hit on a keeper, and he was temporarily forced to the sidelines.

            On fourth down, Devoll made the noisiest block of the game, injecting some much-needed energy into the Bulldog bench. That energy translated back to the field when Benjamin Durocher and David Medeiros Jr. forced a Hamden fumble at the ORR eight-yard line with Medeiros falling on the ball.

            Back in the game, Scherer made two short passes, but on first-and-10 at the ORR 14, he couldn’t get rid of the ball fast enough to thwart a three-man blitz. The play was ruled a fumble, and Christopher Edwards ran it into the endzone for a 20-0 lead with only 1:10 remaining in the first half.

            The play changed the complexion of the game as the teams went to the break 21 points apart.

            Early in the second half, both teams would recover opponents’ fumbles, David Medeiros Jr. logging his second recovery to save a touchdown at the ORR two-yard line.

            Devoll was injured on the tackle after catching a screen pass. He held onto the ball, but was carried off the field. The Hurricanes defense remained dominant, and Roman Morales caught a tipped pass, running it in to make it 27-0. Hamden added one more score while the clock was running down.

            Before the playoffs, New Milford (Connecticut) High School was designated as the neutral site for the New England Pop Warner Regional Championship games. While ORRYF was officially the home team, Hamden was 150 miles closer.

            It would be a long ride back to the Tri-Towns, but Medeiros couldn’t have been prouder to coach the 12U squad. He spoke about 11-year-old Nolan Cameron, who played every snap of the season at center. “He’s the only kid on the team who played every single snap at his position.”

            Medeiros talked about Baptiste’s recovery and runback of a line-drive kickoff that had bounced hard off the chest of return partner David Medeiros Jr. and about Logan Hiles and how the tri-captain relentlessly earned first downs on the final series of the game.

            “I was proud of all of them. They still fought,” he said.

By Mick Colageo