FOXBOROUGH — The loss will sting for quite some time, but there has to be some solace in falling to a worthy opponent.
Compete was not, and never will be, Amesbury’s issue.
Earlier this week, Redhawks coach Colin McQueen mentioned that in his film study for Friday’s Division 7 Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium, his team’s opponent, Uxbridge, more than met the expectations of the press clippings he had read about them. The Spartans came in having pretty much destroyed everyone they’ve played this fall, with an offense averaging over 40 points per game and a pair of brothers assaulting the MIAA record books.
There was absolutely no doubting why the Spartans were there.
The only question was, if they’d ever seen a team the style of Amesbury?
Well, it didn’t matter.
Top-seeded Uxbridge (13-0) completed its perfect season Friday night while looking as dominant as it has all season in the process, beating Amesbury on the Gillette Stadium turf, 42-16, to take home the Division 7 crown. And those brothers, Kellen and Camden LaChapelle, were unbelievable in their final go-around as teammates in leading the Spartans to their first state title since 1992. Kellen, the team’s senior quarterback, rushed for 150 yards on 13 carries with a whopping 5 touchdowns, while Kellen piled up 154 yards on 17 totes with the team’s final score of the night.
So you could say that the brothers were once again the story.
But as a complete team, Uxbridge was just as impressive in every aspect of the game.
“As advertised, man,” said McQueen. “They were very good at what they did. Obviously their quarterback is shifty, tough to tackle, and those linemen got on blocks and drove people back. They’re a great team, and it’s obviously their year when you go undefeated like that.”
Uxbridge received the opening kickoff and didn’t look back.
The drive started at the 35 after the kick went out of bounds, and eight plays later it was Kellen LaChapelle keeping it himself for the 9-yard TD. Amesbury (9-3) would pick up a few first downs on its opening drive thanks to Michael and Max Sanchez as well as Christian McGarry, but a 4th-and-5 run from the plus-43 was stuffed for no gain. Uxbridge wasted no time taking advantage of the turnover, with LaChapelle getting the edge and outracing everyone to the pylon for his second score of the night on a 22-yard burst. A missed PAT kept it a 13-0 game early in the second, but that was basically the only thing that went wrong for the Spartans all night.
So much so, that Amesbury almost ended that second drive with a pick to get the ball right back at only 7-0, but a batted ball at the line went straight up, and LaChapelle caught it himself to record a catch.
“Sometimes it’s just not your night,” said McQueen. “We got beat by a better team.”
And it quickly went from bad to worse for Amesbury, which was making its first apperance in a title game since winning Division 3A in 2008.
Its second drive started at the 22, but would ultimately face a 4th-and-2 from its own 42. With how the game was going — coupled with Amesbury’s run-first, clock-killing offense — the decision was made to go for it, and Michael Sanchez pushed for the two yards. But the ball was spotted at the 43-and-a-half yard line, and the Redhawks had once again turned it over on downs.
Three plays later, LaChapelle was off for a 33-yard touchdown, and just like that it was 20-0.
But Amesbury didn’t quit.
Starting the drive with just over four minutes left in the half, the Redhawks got it to around midfield with 90 seconds remaining. Quarterback Justin Dube then executed a nice play-action, and found Max Sanchez streaking up the seam for a 48-yard TD followed by a conversion from his brother. Uxbridge nearly found the endzone again to end the half, but Aiden Donovan, Will Arsenault, McGarry, Dorian Willarson and Danny Hutchings combined to tackle LaChapelle at the 1 on the final play to keep it a 20-8 game at the break.
And with Amesbury getting the ball to start the second half, the chance for the “double score” — at the home of the New England Patriots, no less! — was on the table.
“That’s exactly what we talked about at halftime, in the beautiful locker room we got to go in — again, everything was really cool being here, it was fun to soak it in,” said McQueen. “But we needed to get more stops. If you can’t stop people you can’t win games, and we had problems stopping people today.”
Stops aside, though, the Redhawks did make vintage Bill Belichick proud.
After receiving the second-half kickoff, Amesbury drove 80 yards in 10 plays to make it a serious ballgame. This time it was Michael Sanchez breaking up the middle for a 48-yard touchdown, and a conversion pass from Dube to Ollie Peters made it 20-16 midway through the third.
But the Spartans — well, LaChapelle — couldn’t be stopped.
His fourth touchdown of the night was a 21-yarder on the ensuing drive, and he then kept it himself on the conversion to push the lead back up to 28-16. Amesbury then faced a 4th-and-7 on its own 37 on its next drive, and chose to try a fake punt that was stopped at the line of scrimmage to turn it over on downs for a third time.
“(Uxbridge) just rallied to the ball well,” said McQueen. “We got on people, but they would just shed blocks and rally to it. They would tackle people going backwards and would just get multiple hats to it. When you rally to the football like that, regardless of what scheme you’re playing against, that’s what defense is about. Run and tackle. And they ran and tackled exceptionally well.”
Four plays later, LaChapelle weaved his way in for an 8-yard TD.
And if that wasn’t the dagger late in the third, then it came shortly after when Amesbury’s next drive picked up a few first downs, but ended with an interception near midfield. Camden LaChapelle then took three straight carries for 54 total yards, with the final one being a 3-yard touchdown with 7:35 left to make it a 42-16 game.
Minutes later, the Spartans were celebration their Division 7 title on the Gillette Stadium turf.
It wasn’t the end to the season that Amesbury wanted, but the experience of playing in that particular venue is one it’ll never forget.
“I’m proud of our guys,” said McQueen. “I was just telling them, ‘There are a lot of teams that would have wanted to be in this position.’ We worked incredibly hard to get here. This obviously stings right now, but I couldn’t be more proud and couldn’t feel more lucky to coach a group of guys like them.”
Uxbridge 42, Amesbury 16
Division 7 Super Bowl
Amesbury (9-3): 0 8 8 0 — 16
Uxbridge (13-0): 7 13 15 7 — 42
First Quarter
U — Kellen LaChapelle 9 run (Luke Esposito kick), 7:27
Second Quarter
U — K. LaChapelle 22 run (kick failed), 10:37
U — K. LaChapelle 33 run (Esposito kick), 4:18
A — Max Sanchez 48 pass from Justin Dube (Michael Sanchez run), 1:14
Third Quarter
A — Michael Sanchez 48 run (Ollie Peters pass from Dube), 6:45
U — K. LaChapelle 21 run (K. LaChapelle run), 4:01
U — K. LaChapelle 8 run (Esposito kick), :43
Fourth Quarter
U — Camden LaChapelle 3 run (Esposito kick), 7:35
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: AMESBURY (53-225): Michael Sanchez 15-89, Max Sanchez 14-49, Chrsitian McGarry 8-47, DJ DiCarlo 11-46, Ben Richard 1-4, Justin Dube 4-(-10); UXBRIDGE (30-304): Camden LaChapelle 17-154, Kellen LaChapelle 13-150
PASSING: A — J. Dube 3-5-1, 69; U — K. LaChapelle 4-9-0, 30
RECEIVING: A — Max Sanchez 1-48, Michael Sanchez 1-18, McGarry 1-3; U — Carter Gilmore 3-29, K. LaChapelle 1-1