The Vineyarders cruised to their first 2021 spring season victory on Monday with a 42-0 win on the road against an undermanned Monomoy team.
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) squad jumped out to a 35-0 halftime lead, scoring four times in the second quarter. Coach Don Herman put the offensive brakes on the second half and concentrated on playing time for his relatively young team.
“Everyone who traveled played. We were careful with time because the JVs are also plaiyng this week. I liked the effort. We came out playing hard and physical against a pretty good Monomoy group with limited depth because of COVID-related protocols,” he said.
“They had their skill players and a couple of big D-line players (280 and 300 pounds respectively) but our O-line played better this week. I like that five different players scored and 15 players were credited with defensive stops including strong play by Alec Calverly again this week” he said.
Purple scorers included first career TDs for juniors Gabe Brito and Von-Trai Porter, Ty Mathew (2 TDs), Braden Sayles, and from Hunter Meader, seeing his first game action of the season.
Brito led the run offense with 89 yards followed by Mathew with 88 yards. Meader had 51 tough yards at fullback.
The Vineyarders have a rematch with Sandwich this Saturday at 12 noon at home. Sandwich won the opener 14-0 two weeks ago, The game will be a test for the Purple on several fronts. “We’ve improved. We were able to move players around. For example, we moved Hiaggo Goncalves to defensive end where he feels more comfortable. I imagine Sandwich would say the same thing about improvements and we are returning to our home field after two weeks playing on the luxury of turf. It was nice not to worry about field conditions,” Herman said.
But MVRHS will have the luxury of a potentially larger fanbase at McCarthy Field in Oak Bluffs. New COVID-related rules allow each player and coach two adult tickets and up to four tickets for siblings. The game will be televised live on Facebook.
“We had a close game with them here last year and this one will be hard fought and physical,” he predicted.
