DARTMOUTH — All Jhaden Reis wants is one football championship.
“I’ve been playing football since I was 4 years old and I’ve never won a championship,” GNB Voc-Tech’s senior quarterback and captain said after Thursday’s 52-0 victory over Montachusett Voc-Tech. “I’ve won in basketball and baseball, but never a football championship. Winning this would mean a lot to me and these guys would love it too.”
The Bears (5-4) are one step closer to that goal with Thursday night’s slaughter of the Bulldogs (4-5) in the quarterfinals of the State Vocational Tournament’s Large Division.
“A couple of years ago, we lost in that vocational title game and it hurt,” Reis said. “Even to someone who wasn’t playing, it made me think about being back there and wanting to win it. It would mean everything to us.”
Standing in GNB Voc-Tech’s way of a trip to the Vocational Super Bowl is top-seeded Bay Path Voc-Tech (7-3), who the Bears will face in the semifinals on the road next Friday night, Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m. Bay Path drubbed Essex Tech, 53-8, in the other quarterfinal on Thursday night.
If the Bears play like they did on Thursday night, Bay Path will be in for a challenge. GNB Voc-Tech led 14-0 after the first quarter and 42-0 at halftime en route to dropping a 50-burger on the visiting Bulldogs.
Reis led the charge with 104 yards and a touchdown on the ground while completing his only pass attempt of the night for a 60-yard touchdown. He sat the second half with the Bears holding a commanding lead.
“He’s a great leader,” GNB Voc-Tech coach Justin Cruz said of Reis. “He put a lot into football this year. He’s comfortable with whatever he’s doing, whether he’s running the ball, handing it off or throwing. He loves to win and he got it done tonight for us for sure.”
‘We lost to a better team’ Dartmouth suffers first loss to end Div. 3 state playoff run
HOW IT HAPPENED
GNB Voc-Tech absolutely dominated the first half with its starters in the game. Aydyn Santos scored his first touchdown on the opening drive less than four minutes into the game on an 8-yard run, then made it 14-0 at the end of the first quarter with an 18-yarder.
The Bears scored four touchdowns in the second quarter while running only nine offensive plays. Harrison Cabral started the scoring with a 2-yard run at 9:54 and Santos continued the onslaught with a 43-yarder halfway through the quarter.
Reis had a hand in GNB Voc-Tech’s final two scores of the first half. He accounted for all 40 yards in a quick two-play scoring drive with 4:40 left, and threw a 60-yard touchdown to Alex Pellegrino with 10 seconds left in the half.
“I love throwing that ball,” Reis said with a smile as he thought about the deep ball down the right sideline, in which Pellegrino had a step on his defender. “That’s Alex’s route. He executed it perfectly.”
The Bears found the endzone on every first half possession en route to the 42-0 halftime advantage. They gained 333 yards on offense in the half to Monty Tech’s 37.
“The defense is what builds our momentum,” Reis said. “We’re hearing these big hits going on and it’s just pumping us up even more. It makes us want to go crazy on offense.”
Monty Tech looked to get back on track in the second half as running back Ryan Quinn ripped off a 49-yard run on the opening play of the half. The Bears put an end to that momentum three plays later when Tyler Vasconcelos returned an interception 85 yards for a touchdown. Senior Connor McManus hit a 32-yard field goal to cap the scoring late in the third quarter.
“Coming in, we wanted to execute and dominate,” Cruz said. “I thought our guys did a really good job fundamentally and because we were fundamentally sound, we had a lot of success tonight.”
GETTING IT DONE IN THE BACKFIELD
How good were Santos and Cabral on Thursday night? The pair of GNB Voc-Tech running backs averaged 15 yards a carry between them, combining for 166 yards on 11 carries and four touchdowns.
“Our backs, they bring straight up effort and hard work,” Reis said of Cabral and Santos. “Every practice, every game, they’re giving us their all, and they’re playing both ways. They’re being dogs and that’s what we need out there.”
“Last year, they were basically defensive players for us,” Cruz said of Santos and Cabral. “This year, little by little, they started taking on the role of most of our run game. They’re extremely disciplined. Sometimes there’s no hole there and they pop one out for a 30-yard gain. That’s practice and repetition and being able to do the little things right.”
Of course, no yards are gained on the ground without the big boys up front, and the offensive line of the Bears was stellar on Thursday night.
“The offensive line did its thing. They gave us great opportunities to score,” Reis said. “This win’s all to them.”
WEEK 10: Football scores and highlights for playoff and non-playoff action
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
The old football saying “you are what your record shows” might not apply to the Bears this year. All four of their losses this season came to teams that not only made the MIAA playoffs, but won their first-round game.
That includes three SCC rivals (Old Rochester, Fairhaven and Somerset Berkley) and a Dartmouth team that lost its only game of the season in the second round of the playoffs.
“I think our strength of schedule pays off for us in these games,” Cruz said. “We were playing good, hard football in those games, and even though we lost those games, it’s starting to pay off as we play other teams.”
QUICK HITS
Thursday’s game was held at Bishop Stang due to construction at the track around GNB Voc-Tech’s football field. … McManus was perfect on the evening, going 7-for-7 on extra-point attempts and hitting his only field goal try. … Monty Tech is, you guessed it, a regional vocational technical high school in Fitchburg, 93 miles from Bishop Stang in Dartmouth. … The second half was played with a running clock due to MIAA rules on lopsided scores. The teams combined to run only 22 plays in the second half, which lasted roughly 25 minutes of real time. Both teams were on the bus and out of Dartmouth a little over 2 hours after the National Anthem was played to start the game. … The Bears were flagged for five of the game’s nine penalties. … Quinn led the Bulldogs with 69 yards on the ground. … Bay Path is in Charlton, just outside of Worcester, and is roughly 80 miles from GNB Voc-Tech’s campus on Ashley Boulevard in New Bedford.
GNB VOC-TECH 52, MONTY TECH 0
GNB VOC-TECH;14;28;10;0-52
MONTY TECH;0;0;0;0-0
SCORING
First Quarter
VT: Aydyn Santos 8 run (Connor McManus kick), 8:06
VT: Aydyn Santos 18 run (Connor McManus kick), 1:59
Second Quarter
VT: Harrison Cabral 2 run (Connor McManus kick), 9:54
VT: Aydyn Santos 43 run (Connor McManus kick), 6:35
VT: Jhaden Reis 2 run (Connor McManus kick), 4:40
VT: Alex Pellegrino 60 pass from Jhaden Reis (Connor McManus kick), :10
Third Quarter
VT: Tyler Vasconcelos 85 interception return (Connor McManus kick), 7:32
VT: Connor McManus 32 kick, :30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: VT- Harrison Cabral 6-95, Aydyn Santos 5-71, Jhaden Reis 6-104, Aliaz Colon 2-12, Odilio Benique 1-1, Angel Barreto 1-8, Nick Boucher 3-22, Nyzaiah Medeiros 1-7, Bryan Antunes 1-7, Joseph Pires 1-4; MT-Dylan Hunton 4-0, Ryan Quinn 8-69, Art Walch 1-(-1), Sam Proctor 3-10, Pat Hall 1-7, Daniel Pfeifle 1-1, Collin Allain 2-22, Drew Hachey 1-0.
Passing: VT-Jhaden Reis 1-1-60-1-0, Nick Boucher 1-1-14-0-0; MT-Dylan Hunton 3-13-3-0-1.
Receiving: VT-Alex Pellegrino 1-60, Aliaz Colon 1-14; MT-Ryan Quinn 1-3, Pat Hall 2-0.