Red Raiders Steamroll Durfee in Season Opener

Two plays. Two men. Instant victory.

In just 19 seconds last night at B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River, the Barnstable High School Red Raiders scored all the points they would need to defeat the host Hilltoppers.

On the opening kickoff, senior Tedaro France raced downfield 100 yards, was almost tackled at the opposing 15, but squirmed free and netted the first touchdown of the Red Raiders' 2012 campaign.

France's 100-yard touchdown on the game's opening kickoff was just the second time in Red Raider history that a kick returner ran for a 100-yard touchdown score. 1970 tri-captain Arthur Pacheco of Centerville held the record all alone for 42 years until last night. Pacheco had a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown on October 17, 1970 versus Fairhaven.

On the PAT, fellow senior Terrence Mudie split the uprights and Barnstable enjoyed an almost instantaneous 7-0 lead. It was a lead the guests would never relinquish and one that would never be compromised.

The Red  Raiders finished the night by scoring eight touchdowns and Mudie would go 7-8 on PAT kicks in a game that in all due fairness was not much of a fight. On Durfee's first offensive play of the game, thinking his offensive line had gone offsides, Hilltopper junior quarterback Trevellis Oliver dropped the snap and let it sit on the turf as senior linebacker and captain Bryan Hardy punced on the ball.

A couple of flags and incomplete passes later, junior running back Hayden Murphy picked up his team's first first down rush of the season, followed by senior quarterback Nick Peabody punching it in from the five-yard line to make it 13-0. Mudie's PAT kick was good and Barnstable enjoyed a 14-0 lead with just one minute and 21 seconds elapsed off the first quarter clock.

Murphy ended the night carrying the ball 11 times for 72 yards and scored a touchdown on a Peabody pass, while Peabody went 14-23 passing for 22 yards and threw five touchdown passes. The second-year QB also showed he has a few tricks up his sleeve by running the ball, carrying it seven times for 63 yards, and scoring two touchdowns of his own on runs of five and 24 yards.

France also scored twice - first on the aformentioned 95-yard kickoff return and secondly, on an 18-yard reception from Peabody. 

Defensively speaking, Barnstable had Durfee pinned back at midfield after seven plays when defensive lineman Jason Frieh hammered Durfee's Oliver in the backfield for a 10-yard loss, but an ensuing unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on Barnstable gave the Hilltoppers an automatic first down. 

Durfee would keep the ball for the next 10 minutes and into the second quarter as it engineered a n 18-play drive that resulted in a touchdown by captain Raheem Barzey to make it 14-6. But that was as close as the score would get.

Barnstable piled it on bit by bit until the game's final score, a nine-yard touchdown run by junior Justus Chaffee that made it 54-6. Mudie's seventh kick of the night finalized things at 55-6.

Touchdowns scored came from Peabody (2), France (2), James Burke, Murphy, Dylan Morris and Chaffee. Burke had 84 yards receiving on five catches, including a 27-yarder from Peabody with 0:13 remaining in the first half. Barnstable enjoyed a 28-6 first half lead.

Next Friday night at home, Barnstable faces rival Dennis-Yarmouth, a team coming off a 13-0 Super Bowl championship season in 2011.

Jason Frieh and Andrew Ellis played spectacular defense throughout the affair. France had a late-game interception to add to the damage done.