Bellingham football edged by Winthrop in Division 6 quarterfinals
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BELLINGHAM — With the fingertips of Desmond Cassidy, the Bellingham High football team’s bid to reach the Final Four came to a heartbreaking end.
Cassidy blocked an extra point in the second quarter and a potential go-ahead field goal late in the fourth as 12th-seeded Winthrop stunned No. 4 Bellingham, 7–6, in an MIAA Division 6 quarterfinal thriller on Friday night, November 13.
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With the loss, the Blackhawks end their postseason run and fall to 8–2, while the Cinderella Vikings continue to wear the glass slipper — traveling roughly 50 miles to knock off a top-four seed and advance to the Division 6 semifinals against Norwell.
"We made one more play—two more plays, honestly," Winthrop coach Jon Cadigan said afterward. "I mean, if he makes the extra point, we're still here. Bottom line was execution. First things first, we talked about it all week that extra points and field goals were like a play that we need to execute. So it's just like an offensive play for us. We felt like we had something where we could get a block, and obviously our guy made a play."
Winthrop struck first with 2:16 remaining in the opening quarter when Dominic Ferrara punched in a 2-yard touchdown plunge to give the Vikings an early 7–0 cushion.
Playing without starting quarterback Cam MacGregor, who was sidelined with a broken collarbone, Bellingham turned to junior signal-caller Sam Araujo under center and leaned heavily on senior workhorse Mason Alger.
The Blackhawks answered in the second quarter with a methodical, 13-play, 45-yard scoring drive capped by Alger’s 3-yard touchdown run out of a direct snap with 7:12 left before halftime. Bellingham appeared poised to pull even, but Cassidy came flying off the edge to block Anthony Barrasso’s extra-point attempt—leaving Winthrop ahead 7–6 at the break in what proved to be the final margin.
"We had a field goal blocked against Ashland [earlier this season], and the most important thing you've got to understand is that's desire," Bellingham coach Dan Haddad said. "That's wanting it so bad. [Cassidy] was willing to lay out, and so there were just many opportunities, and we just didn't take advantage of them."
The Vikings nearly extended their lead before halftime after driving down to the Bellingham 4-yard line in the closing minutes of the second quarter, but quarterback Charlie Ferrara’s fade pass to Cassidy in the end zone was ruled out of bounds.
Forced to modify its vertical passing game without MacGregor, Bellingham found sledding tough against a physical Winthrop front that sent heavy pressure whenever the Blackhawks threatened in the red zone. Araujo finished 3-for-6 passing for 52 yards with a costly interception, while Alger carried the offense with 92 yards and a score on 16 carries—including a 40-yard burst down to the Winthrop 5-yard line that set up Bellingham's late red-zone chance.
"When [Alger] made that 40-yard run to the five, you have first-and-goal, and then we stopped them for negative plays, and then the blocked field goal—that's huge," Cadigan said. "No. 5 is a terrific player. Just getting down on the goal line, it's buckling up. It's the next-play mentality for us."
Haddad credited his defense and offensive line for keeping the Blackhawks within a single point against a tough opponent, though missed chances and a costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with six minutes left—which burned three crucial minutes off the clock—proved too much to overcome.
"When you lose your starting quarterback, [Araujo] did what he could do," Haddad said. "He did the best he could, and there's not much more I could have asked from him. I put him in a real difficult situation here. We were able to move the ball down on them, but once we got to the goal line, they were sending the house at us, so we just didn't have an answer for it."
While the playoff road ends in heartbreak for Bellingham, the Blackhawks still have one final chapter left to write when they travel to face rival Norton on Thanksgiving morning.
This article originally appeared on The Milford Daily News: Bellingham football edged by Winthrop in Division 6 quarterfinals