by Kristian Lundberg

It was all but over in 14 seconds.

Weymouth junior quarterback Dave Harrison threw a touchdown and ran for another, all within the first quarter, to punctuate a 49-7 drubbing of a severely overmatched Tigers’ football team Saturday at Dickinson Stadium.

Though the Tigers kept the Wildcats out of the end zone over the first four minutes, the floodgates opened soon thereafter. On the first play from scrimmage following a six-yard TD catch by Wildcats’ Tyler O’Brien, Weymouth senior Ozzie Colarusso took an interception, the first of his three on the afternoon, 30 yards for a touchdown the other way. Colarusso’s pick-six put the Wildcats on top 14-0 within just a quarter of a minute.

The two-touchdown deficit was one from which the Tigers never recovered. They surrendered two more in the quarter and five more over the rest of the game to Weymouth, who improved to 5-0 following the win.

Senior tailback Andrew Kinsella scored the Tigers’ lone touchdown on the afternoon on a 9-yard toss on fourth-and-goal from junior quarterback Christian Cox, initially the third-string quarterback on the Tigers’ roster. Junior Jack Boucher, the Tigers’ starting quarterback, went down early in the first quarter, and with senior Joey Mariano having been injured in the season opener Cox was forced to step in against a tenacious Wildcats’ defense.

Up 14-0 early in the second quarter, Weymouth took advantage of a partially blocked punt by the Tigers and launched a ruthlessly efficient, 7-play, 37-yard drive, capped by a 10-yard touchdown scamper by Colarusso with 3:14 left in the first. Harrison notched his second TD on the ensuing Weymouth possession, taking a 21-yard quarterback draw up the middle to paydirt with 47 seconds left in the period.

The Tigers’ sole touchdown came off of a rare Wildcat miscue in the second quarter, by which time Weymouth had already pulled its starters from the game. Senior Kyle Rich pounced on a botched snap by Weymouth senior Jack Lehan, who had replaced Harrison at the start of the quarter. From there, Cox hit senior Ryan Quinn on a 30-yard completion to extend the drive, before Kinsella punched in his reception on fourth down with 1:12 left in the first half to cut the deficit to 35-7.

Yet whatever momentum the Tigers gained from that drive quickly vanished on the ensuing Wildcats’ possession, when Weymouth senior Corey Folsom scored on the next play. His 80-yard catch-and-run put the Wildcats back up by 35 with less than a minute to play in the half.

As the afternoon wore on, the Tigers mustered little additional offense. Weymouth tacked on a meaningless insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter, on another catch by Folsom, to make the final score 49-7.

With the loss, the Tigers dropped to 2-3 on the year after having won their first two games. They hope to end their three-game skid in Norwood tomorrow at 1.