Xavier football scores 4 second-half touchdowns as defense shuts out Foran in SCC victory
· Yahoo Sports
MILFORD - For two quarters, the Xavier football team looked nothing like a team hoping to reach the postseason. The final 24 minutes were a different story.
After being held scoreless and limited to just 57 yards of offense in the first half, Xavier scored four touchdowns in the second half on its way to a 28-0 Southern Connecticut Conference victory over Foran at the Vito DeVito Sports Complex at Foran High in Milford on Saturday afternoon.
Visit rouesnews.click for more information.
In a game rescheduled from Friday evening, Xavier looked sluggish to start the game and the Lions seemed poised to take control early. An opportunistic Xavier defense took away any Foran momentum when Carmine Balogh's interception in the end zone ended an 11-play Foran drive with 19 seconds left in a scoreless first half.
"That was huge keeping them out," Xavier coach Sean Marinan said. "The momentum would have changed completely. They would have had it all coming out of halftime, and we would have had to give them the ball. So that was a huge play."
The Falcons carried that momentum into the second half. After denying Foran on fourth down to open the half, Xavier scored on all four of its second-half possessions.
"We woke up," Marinan said after his team improved to 4-2. "We decided we are here for a football game. We stopped sleep-walking and we started playing better football."
Led by quarterback Maxx Murphy, the Falcons put up 207 yards of offense in the final 24 minutes. Murphy connected with Milo Chandler on a 47-yard pass to the Foran 1-yard line before Murphy scored on the next play for a 7-0 lead 3:29 into the third quarter.
"We started off lazy," Murphy said. "I felt like it was just a Saturday and everybody comes out here lazy. We are used to playing on Friday nights. In the second half, we scored our first touchdown and the momentum carried for the rest of the game, and we just kept our foot on the gas after that. The first half, we have to come out better."
The Xavier defense held Foran on fourth down once again and the offense responded with a 12-play, 64-yard drive, capped by a 7-yard touchdown pass from Murphy to Eli Halvorsen with 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The Falcons then used a pair of interceptions to set up their final two scores.
Balogh's second interception of the game led to a 5-yard score by Lonzell Barnes with 7:17 remaining for a 21-0 lead, before Brandon Carter's interception allowed Barnes to score his second touchdown of the game, this one from 6 yards out, for a 28-0 lead with 4:39 to go.
"I thought in the first half, our kids were super juiced," Foran coach Garrett Walker said after his team fell to 2-3. "We have to do a better job of staying on schedule. We put ourselves behind the sticks offensively. You can't run our offense that way. We ask our guys to play a lot of snaps on both sides of the ball. I think we got a little tired."
Xavier's defense held Foran to just 85 yards of offense in the second half.
Player of the game
Maxx Murphy, Xavier: The junior quarterback threw for 164 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for a score in Xavier's fourth win of the year.
Quotable
"The O-line played amazing. I felt a lot of time in the pocket. Every pass play, I didn't really feel much pressure."
- Xavier quarterback Maxx Murphy.
Xavier 28, Foran 0
XAVIER 0 0 14 14-28
FORAN 0 0 0 0- 0
X-Maxx Murphy 1 run (CJ Morello kick)
X-Eli Halvorsen 7 pass from Maxx Murphy (Morello kick)
X-Lonzell Barnes 5 run (Morello kick)
X-Barnes 6 run (Morello kick)
Records: Xavier 4-2, Foran 2-3.
This article originally published at Xavier football scores 4 second-half touchdowns as defense shuts out Foran in SCC victory.