As the clock hit triple zeroes in Duxbury, and Hanover cemented its season-opening win, the power shifted in the Patriot League.
While the game wasn’t a league contest, the Dragons hadn’t lost a regular season game to a team on either side of the Patriot League since falling on the road in Hingham in 2007.
Since then, it’s been 14 straight league titles, outside of the COVID season, and a prolonged undefeated streak.
Scituate’s Super Bowl victory over Duxbury in 2021 was a watershed moment in its own right, but last night was different.
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After that loss, the Dragons came back in 2022 as the heavy favorites and marched to another Super Bowl with an undefeated, and largely uncontested season.
Today though, the future, at least in the immediate, seems a bit murkier for Duxbury.
For Hanover, the path forward is far clearer, as they’ve stamped themselves among the favorites in Division 5.
Here are three things we learned from Thursday night’s game:
Ben Scalzi is a PROBLEM
It’s crazy to think that had Michael Landolfi stayed home and finished his career at Hanover, Thursday night would have been Ben Scalzi’s first career start.
Instead, he walked onto the turf at Duxbury a marked man; a talent recognized among the best at his position in the state.
On opening night, Scalzi lived up to the billing.
With an unofficial final line of 17 for 28 passing for 245 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, along with 18 yards and a score on the ground, Scalzi was the clear star of the Hanover win.
It was more than just what he did, however, it was how he did it.
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More times than you could count, Scalzi extended plays and threw dimes off his back foot, off-balanced, or as he was being hit.
It wasn’t that the line play was bad. In fact, the Hanover offensive line turned in a spectacular performance against a vaunted Duxbury front. It was instead Scalzi using his still underestimated athleticism to extend plays and give his receivers the best chances to get open.
A perfect example was on a roll out early in the second quarter, when Scalzi gave Connor Hutchison time to drift against the grain into an unguarded patch of the endzone. It was one of the easier throws Scalzi had on the night, but made so by his own talent.
The arm talent was on full display elsewhere, including on the game-clinching score when Scalzi put a ball in the corner of the endzone that only sophomore Brandon Errico could reach. Errico made an unbelievable play, again made possible by a spectacular throw by Scalzi.
There doesn’t seem to be a throw that Scalzi doesn’t have in his arsenal, and when injuries and cramping limited Vinny Mancini and the ground game, Scalzi shouldered the load, kept the clock moving, and made big plays when Hanover needed them most.
Question marks loom in key places for Duxbury
For the first time in quite some time, there is an air of uncertainty about the Duxbury Dragons.
While it seemed Finn Carley was the heir apparent to the quarterback position from the outside, Duxbury was less sure, alternating throughout the game between Carley and junior Trevor Jones.
Setting aside historical greatness at the position, Duxbury’s recent history has been quarterbacks with successful, multiyear tenures.
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Since Bobby Maimaron overtook Sean McCarthy during his freshman season, the Dragons have always had an underclassmen predecessor waiting in the wings. Four years of Bobby Maimaron led to two of John Roberts, led to what would have been four of Matt Festa if not for injury.
Will Prouty, thrust into the role with Festa’s injury, is the lone senior outside of Carley to get the nod as a first-time starter at QB in his final season at Duxbury in the last 20 years.
After Thursday night, though, we’re left asking if it really is Carley’s job?
Both he and Jones showed flashes of greatness in the game, but neither could sustain success. That could certainly be because rhythm is difficult to find when you’re in and out of the game, but it still leaves a question mark at the most important position on the field.
Quarterback wasn’t the only spot that seemed in flux.
The impact of an early botched PAT cannot be overstated for Dragons, who were forced to chase points in the second half.
A bad snap didn’t give Trevor Jones a chance to get a kick away. When Hanover later went up 21-6, the Dragons failed on a two-point conversion.
After Jones rushed one in early in the fourth quarter to bring the Dragons within three, it was not the junior, who kicked all last year for Duxbury, who attempted the extra point. Instead, it was senior TJ Pikul.
Though it mattered little at that point, Pikul’s attempt was no good.
Jones was excellent last year for Duxbury, and one has to imagine there’s a reason that he was subbed from the role late in the game. Regardless, it was another place where the usually rock-solid Dragons seemed unstable.
Hydration is, and always will be, key
Issues of cramping are synonymous with early season football. Reacclimating your body to the toll of 48 minutes of football plus early September temperatures often make for tight muscles.
With particularly hot and humid weather on Thursday, injury stoppages for cramps were persistent, particularly for the Hawks.
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An otherwise fantastic game felt at times in the second half like it was ground to a snail’s pace with bodies constantly on the turf in spasm.
Still, it made even more impressive what Hanover was able to do with pieces rotating in and out so frequently.
Here’s to hoping we see a little bit less of the unwelcomed 23rd player on the field, Charley Horse, this season.
