Once again, the hearts of two local communities will be opened to benefit the family of U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Kyle Van De Giesen.
On Thanksgiving morning at Beaupre Field in North Attleboro, the North Attleboro High School Gridiron Club will donate the proceeds of the 50/50 raffle to a scholarship fund for the two children of the former quarterback of the Red Rocketeers, who was killed in action piloting a helicopter in Afghanistan last month. On Nov. 7, fans at the North Attleboro-Mansfield…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 20, 2009 at 7:53pm —
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I thought I'd heard most everything in a professional sports locker room over 30-plus years of covering the NFL, but today was the first time I've ever heard a player reference a Japanese anime cartoon to describe a position group.
Holding court by his locker, Laurence Maroney invoked the name of Voltron during Friday's media availability period.
"We're just missing Fred (Taylor), and I’m not going to feel complete until Fred gets back on the field," Maroney told reporters. "Slowly but surely,…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 20, 2009 at 3:39pm —
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A rare Friday for me at Gillette Stadium, and guard Stephen Neal is still not practicing in the wake of a head injury he suffered in the Colts' game last week. Neal has been seen in the locker room, but teams take plenty of precautions when it comes to head injuries.
If Neal can't play against the Jets on Sunday, it's likely that the versatile Dan Connolly would get the nod at right tackle.
Defensive tackle Jarvis Green and linebacker Tully Banta-Cain were back on the practice field, which is…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 20, 2009 at 1:48pm —
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That cutesy little reference to this week being "Week 10.1" is to note that there's only one game on the docket locally, although a very important one to the local team playing in it.
So let's get to the pick right away, with the home team in CAPS:
TRI-COUNTY 35, Old Colony 6 (Saturday, 1 p.m.): The two schools have dubbed this yearly game the "Cougar Classic," because both teams share the same nickname. Last year's game was played in bitter cold (but with warm hearts on both sides of the fiel…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 20, 2009 at 9:43am —
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CBS will be sending its top broadcast team, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, to Foxboro for the Jets-Patriots game this Sunday at 4:15 p.m.
There's a site on the Internet that provides a lot of interesting information on the weekly broadcasts of all the games done by CBS and Fox, including color-coded maps to tell you where the games will be seen on over-the-air TV and who's doing the broadcasts. Here's a link to the
NFL Distributi…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 20, 2009 at 9:06am —
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You may recall that in the wake of the Patriots' 35-34 loss to Indianapolis, former Patriots Tedy Bruschi (now with ESPNBoston.com) and Rodney Harrison (now of NBC Sports) were both very critical of Coach Bill Belichick's decision to go for a first down on a fourth-and-2 situation at his own 28 with 2:08 to go.
Jerod Mayo proved Thursday that it doesn't take long for current players to forget the contributions of two of the best defensive players of the past decade or more. Centering upon Brusc…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 19, 2009 at 12:20pm —
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The principals of the South Coast Conference have voted unanimously to explore possible league expansion. What that means at this point isn't exactly clear.
The SCC is much like the Hockomock, in that it is currently a nine-member association of schools that are contiguous, from Seekonk to the west to Bourne just on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal. For the most part, competition has been fair and equitable in all sports over the years -- but as always, there are some inequities that might…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 19, 2009 at 12:27am —
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Bill Belichick gets in touch with his feelings (well, not really) and Tom Brady says he'd be shocked to see Belichick go weepy on the team as the Jets' Rex Ryan apparently did earlier in the week. It's all part of the buildup to this weekend's skirmish in the Border War, and we've got it for you on the Audio Blog.
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 18, 2009 at 4:46pm —
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Because the football world is all a-buzz over reports that Jets' coach Rex Ryan cried in a talk to his team last week, it was inevitable that someone would ask Patriots' coach Bill Belichick if he had ever teared up in front of his team.
"I've coached 35 years, so I've probably covered most bases," Belichick said. "I think I swore once, too."
Those who've been around here for a reasonable amount of time have seen two obviously emotional moments out of Belichick -- one in the post-game press co…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 18, 2009 at 12:44pm —
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There are individuals who seem to want to generate some sort of conflict over who enters blog posts on this site and how often.
A lot of nonsense has been posted about it. I posted this originally as an answer to that nonsense, thought better of it, took the post off my blog and was prepared to move on. But since the attempt to generate conflict is continuing, I have decided to restore much of the original post.
Here are the facts.
The "Southeastern Mass. Online Community" was established by…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 17, 2009 at 7:42pm —
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The Patriots have just filled an open spot on the practice squad with a player that was there before, defensive lineman Adrian Grady. Here's the press release:
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PATRIOTS SIGN DL ADRIAN GRADY TO THE PRACTICE SQUAD
FOXBORO – The New England Patriots signed DL Adrian Grady to the practice squad today. New England had an open position on the eight-man practice squad following the signing of QB/WR Isaiah Stanback to the 53-man roster last Saturday.
Grady, 6-1, 290 pounds,…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 17, 2009 at 4:34pm —
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According to my good friend Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald, Bridgewater-Raynham emerged the winner in the three-pronged coin flip that determined the Old Colony League's representative in the upcoming MIAA playoffs.
The flip, which was staged earlier this morning at a restaurant in the shadow of the Sagamore Bridge, was forced when Barnstable defeated Attleboro Sunday afternoon and B-R held off Taunton later that evening, creating a three-way tie at the top of the league standings.
With re…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 17, 2009 at 11:01am —
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Been a long football weekend, and I wasn't even in Indianapolis -- and glad, too, because I can just imagine how many times my game story would have been re-written on deadline.
Anyway, here are a few observations from the last two high school games I covered in this four-game weekend:
** Sunday at Barnstable High, I had a season "first" -- I had to use five pages of my custom-made scoresheets to chart the entire game. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is to me.
You see, over some 40…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 17, 2009 at 1:13am —
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One of the best games to settle a league championship I've ever seen ... and I've seen quite a few of those. The Shamrocks battled back from a mistake-filled first half and an 18-7 deficit to win -- and set up the first round of the MIAA Division 3 playoffs against Dighton-Rehoboth in a couple of weeks.
Here's the box score, and the bonus thoughts will follow later.
Bishop Feehan 25, Somerset 24
Som BF
First downs 16 14
Total yardage 270 251
Rushing yardage 236 104
Passing yardage 34 154
Sack…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 16, 2009 at 9:35pm —
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I'll be quick with the hots and nots.
WHO'S HOT
NOBODY: They lost a game they should have won. You don't get rewarded for that.
WHO'S NOT
BILL BELICHICK: He told half of his team that he had no faith in its ability to stop a team from marching 70 yards to a score in the last two minutes, and instead forced them to try to make the stop from 40 yards closer. Clock management was a disaster, too. This one is solely on the Genius' shoulders.
GAME NOTES
NEW ENGLAND SCORES AGAINST STINGY COLTS D…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 16, 2009 at 1:32am —
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Because of the lateness of the hour, I'll add some bonus thoughts from the Attleboro-Barnstable game to those from the Somerset-Feehan game Monday night.
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 16, 2009 at 12:42am —
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I'm just speechless after this one, so here are the final stats from the Patriots' loss to the Colts -- the worst regular-season loss of the Belichick Era, no doubt, but I still rank the 2006 AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl XLII ahead of this one.
I have to be up at 6:45 for The Sun Chronicle News Hour on WARL (1320 AM), so if the game notes don't arrive soon, I'll skip them. All of the superlatives don't mean a heck of a lot in a loss, anyway.
PATRIOTS
Passing CP/AT YDS TD INT
T. Brady…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 16, 2009 at 12:39am —
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Here, courtesy of NFL.com, are the halftime stats for the Patriots-Colts game (Patriots up 24-14).
PATRIOTS
Passing CP/AT YDS TD INT
T. Brady 11/19 237 2 0
Rushing CAR YDS TD LG
K. Faulk 5 41 0 29
L. Maroney 5 15 1 5
T. Brady 3 3 0 3
Receiving REC YDS TD LG
R. Moss 4 144 1 63
W. Welker 2 27 0 15
J. Edelman 2 14 1 9
B. Watson 1 36 0 36
I. Stanback 1 9 0 9
C. Baker 1 7 0 7
Fumbles FUM LOST REC YDS
- - - -
Kicking FG LG XP PTS
S. Gostkowski 1/1 31 3/3 6
Punting NO AVG I20 LG
C. Hanson 3 46 1…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 15, 2009 at 10:11pm —
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You're looking not-so-LIVE at Barnstable High's football field, where I was earlier today to watch the Attleboro High Blue Bombardiers say farewell to the Old Colony League with a 43-24 loss to the Red Raiders. I remain on the Cape, with a nail in the right rear tire of the Tree Hugger, which must be fixed s…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 15, 2009 at 7:22pm —
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A nightmarish first half in the mist and fog in Hyannis as the Bombardiers fall behind 29-0 to one of the better no-huddle offenses you'll see in high school. Here's the box score of Attleboro's last Old Colony League game, and the bonus thoughts will follow later tonight.
Barnstable 43, Attleboro 24
AHS Barn
First downs 16 16
Total yardage 323 344
Rushing yardage 217 98
Passing yardage 117 262
Sacks-yds. 1-9 2-16
Comp.-Att.-Int. 8-21-4 15-21-0
Punts-Avg. 3-30.3 5-35.6
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1
Pen…
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Added by Mark Farinella on November 15, 2009 at 5:37pm —
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