Run game takes charge late to help Duxbury football win the 'Landolfi Bowl' over Hanover

DUXBURY -- When facing the potent Duxbury High offense, Hanover coach Chris Landolfi pointed out that it's a case of "pick your poison."

On this night, the lethal dose came in the form of Alex Barlow.

With Landolfi's Hawks allocating much of their defensive resources to slowing down standout Duxbury quarterback Matt Festa and the Green Dragons' passing game, Barlow stole the show, rushing 19 times for 165 yards and a touchdown to key a season-opening 21-7 win on Thursday.

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On Duxbury's clinching TD drive late in the fourth quarter, Barlow carried seven times for 77 yards, capping the march with a 2-yard scoring plunge with 2:19 remaining. The 6-1, 190-pound junior also had the two biggest non-scoring plays in the drive, converting a fourth-and-2 with a 5-yard run and then ripping off a 34-yard gallop on the very next snap.

"Barlow's a beast," raved Festa, who was 9 of 18 passing for 100 yards and a TD. "He's an absolute specimen. Kind of out of his mind. You need 3 yards on fourth down he's going to give it to you every single time. I don't know a single kid tougher than him. He's borderline psychotic."

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"I give the credit to the O-line," said Barlow, saluting center Charlie Smith, guards Nick Ayres and Jack Johnson, and tackles Spencer Moore and Brent Watts. "There were holes everywhere. They were being beasts all night. We were just grounding and pounding. It worked out."

Barlow's hard-charging game allowed Duxbury coach Matt Landolfi to win the inaugural "Landolfi Bowl" over his brother Chris. It was the first time the two former Duxbury assistants had squared off in a varsity game.

"It's nerve-racking," Matt said. "I wanted to beat him, he wanted to beat me. We'll probably fight during Thanksgiving; there'll be a fistfight. But they do a great job (at Hanover). I was nervous all week because I know he's got stuff up his sleeve that's going to be tough for us to stop. You get a lot of pistol, boot(leg) stuff, which is really difficult for us (to defend) coverage-wise. Credit to those guys; they are tough kids over there."

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Four of the five Landolfi brothers were in attendance. Along with the head coaches, there was Mark (Hanover's special teams coach) and Brian (a game official). The tribe posed for a family photo after the game.

"It was one of the better moments in my football coaching career," Chris Landolfi said. "It was awesome. Special."

Chris Landolfi's Hawks had reason to be proud of their effort. Duxbury narrowly lost the Division 4 state final to Scituate last year, and Hanover went toe-to-toe with the hosts all night. The Dragons jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but the Hawks answered with a 12-play, 95-yard TD drive late in the second quarter. Still trailing 14-7, Hanover turned the ball over on downs at the Duxbury 10 in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

New QB Ben Scalzi, a converted receiver who got the job when standout Michael Landolfi (Chris' son) transferred to prep school ahead of what was supposed to be his senior season, played well in his second career start. He was 11 of 21 passing for 177 yards and capped the lone TD drive with a 19-yard strike to Mehki Bryan.

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"Ben played terrific," Chris Landolfi said. "Couldn't be more proud of him. He took some hard hits and got right back up. Made some nice throws, ran the ball tough. He was a leader."

Hanover receivers David Quinlan (5 catches for 85 yards) and Joe Curran (5 catches for 62 yards) had strong games with Curran submitting a tremendous 33-yard run off a jet sweep on which he refused to go down, pushing the pile for almost 20 yards.

"Joe's one of the toughest kids I've ever coached," Chris Landolfi said. "He's relentless. Intense. Great football player."

Running back Nick Freel added 10 carries for 70 yards.

"I'm really proud of the way the kids played," said Chris Landolfi, whose 2021 team finished 8-3 and made the Div. 3 quarterfinals. "They played their hearts out; it just wasn't our day today."

That was mostly because the Hawks could not slow down Duxbury's running game. The Dragons pounded out 283 yards on 39 attempts for a healthy 7.3-yard average. Duxbury's three scoring drives featured 21 runs and just four passes. On the clinching TD drive it was 10 plays, all runs.

"It's definitely an old-school win," Matt Landolfi said. "Last year we were almost all pass. This year we've emphasized building a running game. Our offensive line is really athletic and they're smart kids. They really put the effort in today."

"That's what we're made for; that's what we're coached to do," Barlow said of the run-heavy approach. "We had to take the pressure off Matt (this season). He's a great player but you can only do so much (being one-dimensional). We had to help him out."

Festa's passing numbers were tame by his standards -- remember he threw for 2,400 yards and 33 TDs a year ago in leading the Dragons to a 10-2 record -- but he also chipped in 83 yards and a TD on 16 carries. By our count, 14 of his runs came on designed QB draws out of a shotgun as Duxbury obviously saw something they liked between the tackles.

"They definitely were playing to stop the pass, so we had to run the ball," said Festa, a 6-3 senior whose night also included a 61-yard punt. "They were sending a couple of dogs (blitzers) off the edge so it wasn't very easy to run to the outside. But they were more susceptible up the middle. We pulled a couple of guards and stuff opened up."

Festa found the end zone first, scoring on a 5-yard run at the end of Duxbury's first possession. He kept the ball himself on each of the last four plays in that march.

Late in the first quarter he hit Chris Walsh (3 catches for 45 yards) with a 9-yard TD pass to make it 14-0.

That was it for the Duxbury scoring until the late, clinching drive. That one featured a big gamble by Matt Landolfi, who went for it on fourth-and-2 from his own 42 with 3:57 remaining. Barlow, who estimated that he got 10-15 touches all of last year as an H-back, took an inside handoff and bulled for 5 yards.

"If I didn't get the ball (on that play)," he joked, "I probably would have thrown my helmet."

His next three runs went for 34 yards, 12 yards and 2 yards, the final one providing the final score.

Now Duxbury gets its long-awaited rematch with Scituate in Week 2. The Dragons' muscle-flexing ground attack will give the defending state champion Sailors something to think about in the run-up to that game. Last December, Scituate won, 14-13, at Gillette Stadium, scoring on a 2-point conversion in the final minute.

"Definitely looking forward to Scituate," Festa said. "That one's been circled on the calendar since 279 days ago. We're definitely confident that we're ready to go in and make some noise."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Duxbury football grinds out win over Hanover in 'Landolfi Bowl'