Danny V High School Football Sweet 16 – Boston Herald

Dan Bennett was a linebacker for the 1978 Dover-Sherborn football team, which earned a share of the Tri-Valley League championship.

Forty-three years later, his son Johnny played a large part in ending the drought.

Bennett grabbed the touchdown pass, returned a point 50 yards to get the result, and picked up two passes when the Raiders handed over their previously unbeaten Norton their first loss 35-0 to earn a share of the league championship. If Bellingham beat Norton on Thanksgiving, Dover-Sherborn would be the undisputed league champion.

“It was so exciting, I’ve never been involved in anything so exciting,” Bennett said. “We won the state lacrosse title last year, but (Friday night) was more exciting.”

As Bennett and his teammates basked in glory, Dan Bennett stood aside bathing in glory. Team linebacker coach Bennett mentored most of the current Raiders in youth football and sensed that the group could eventually make a name for themselves at the high school level.

“Those kids were good at many sports,” Bennett said. “In youth football, we faced Wellesley, Norwood, Framingham, Natick and Lincoln-Sudbury and we had winning seasons. I just see them competing in TVL and succeeding.

“It’s been great to coach with my son, but coaching all of these children and developing them into young men has been excellent. Because many of them stayed in town, they are like my extended family. ”

In addition to Bennett playing key roles in achieving the title, the two teams also had to overcome adversity in the form of an early loss. In 1978, an early loss to Millis forced the Raiders to share the TVL title with Westwood and Millis.

This year’s Raiders team perfection ended in the fifth week. After finding out their first four opponents, the two-figure Dover-Sherborn got a dose of reality when defending TVL Small champion Bellingham gave them a 35-24 loss.

“I think we felt a little and Bellingham came in and played a great game,” Bennett said. “We learned that night that we had to bring it in every week. From that moment on, we just went to rehearsals and everyone started firing all the cylinders, there was a lot more pop in our rehearsals.”

Since then, Dover-Sherborn concluded the trade by winning a good Medway team (35-24) and Millis (33-0) to set the stage for Friday night’s official entrants.

“We’re not the biggest team, but our mentality is that we’re going to play hard and aggressively on both sides of the ball,” Bennett said. – We are quite athletic and fly around the ball in defense. That’s why we’ve been so successful. ”

Something Dan Bennett could identify with.

Sweet 16

1. Katholic monument (8-0): When knights smell blood in water, beware.

2. EVERETT (7-0): Crimson Tide now gets a chance to prove himself against iron in Div. 1.

3. MEDIUM CHAIR (7-1): The long journey south did not affect the Raiders.

4. LINCOLN-SUDBURY (7-0): The Warriors did well with all seven regular season opponents.

5. XAVERAN (6-2): The Hawks did everything right against the Catholic Memorial for the first 19 minutes. That’s the last 28 they’d like to forget.

6. FRANKLIN (7-0): The Panthers defense was excellent against Milford.

CHAPTER 7 (8-0): Quarterback James Murphy concluded a brilliant regular season against five TD companies in Lexington.

8. ST. PREPARATION OF JOHANNE (6-2): Eagles need to find answers in defense and do it quickly.

9. MARBLE HEAD (7-0): The magicians take care of Danvers to get to the post-season season with a flawless record.

10. MARSHFIELD (7-1): The Rams finished the regular season with seven consecutive wins.

11. KING PHILIP (6-1): This could be one of Brian Lee’s best coaching assignments.

12. DUXBURY (6-1): The regular season ended in a steady victory over Whitman-Hanson.

13. SCITUATE (7-1): Winning the Patriot Fisher title is nice. It would be nicer to get Keegan Sullivan back in the playoffs.

14. NATICK (7-1): Clearly demonstrated that they were in the Bay State Conference class.

15. BARNSTABLE (6-2): Give them recognition that they are not afraid to schedule out-of-league races against some of the big boys in the Eastern Mass.

16. STONEHAM (8-0): Spartans enjoys running behind Peter Godfrey and the other talented offensive line.