PEABODY — When a team loses its top running back to injury, its ground game should suffer.
Tell that to Bishop Fenwick football coach Dave Woods, whose team rushed for 258 yards in a 32-28 home win over Archbishop Williams last night just three games after losing starting running back Alex Crecco.
"I think we're limited with what we can do offensively," explained Woods. "So we go with our strengths — and that's our offensive line."
Nick Corbett saw the majority of the carries for the Crusaders as the senior fullback finished with 124 yards on 27 carries, including three rushing touchdowns. Corbett scored from one yard out and five yards out in the second quarter, and again on a 44-yard dash to paydirt in the fourth in what proved to be the game-winner.
The win was Fenwick's first in four Catholic Central League Large contests.
"(Fenwick) did a good job of controlling the ball and keeping it out of our hands in the second half," noted Archbishop Williams coach Bill Kinsherf, whose team ran only nine plays in the fourth quarter. "(Chris) Renzulli is a good back and No. 41 (Corbett) is a tough runner. They kept grinding it out three yards at a time, so we didn't see the ball much."
Senior Chris Renzulli and junior signal caller Brett Kidik helped Bishop Fenwick (4-6) maintain drives throughout the second half by way of the running game. Renzulli finished with 84 yards on 16 carries while Kidik had 36 yards on nine carries, almost all of which came in the second half.
Renzulli had a 7-yard touchdown run of his own in the third quarter capping off a 10-play, 61-yard drive that lasted six minutes and 21 seconds.
Defensively, Woods' squad had the daunting task of trying to contain Archbishop Williams quarterback Elvin Souffrant. A running back-turned-QB, Souffrant displayed his elusiveness on the very first drive with two scrambles for a total of 66 yards. He would be limited throughout the rest of the game until he broke lose for a 25 yard scramble to the promised land, bringing the Bishops (3-6) within four with just over three minutes to play.
Bishop Fenwick's defense limited Williams' running back Alex Furtado for most of the game, but the speedy junior broke off a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"I thought we did a nice job bottling up Furtado," noted Woods. "But (Souffrant) is athletic. If you give him a crease and let him get in open space, he's gone."
The Crusaders now set their sights on their Thanksgiving Day opponent, Austin Prep, whom they'll host at Donaldson Field.
