OA Freshman Football Team Suffers First Loss of Season

The OA Freshman Tigers faced their toughest defensive opponent of the year and fell to North Attleboro 23-6 on a cold Saturday morning.

OA's productive offense was slow to get going Saturday and was fortunate to get two early fumble recoveries by Joey Tepper to help them slow down the Red Rocketeers. The second fumble was a huge turnover as Mike Ferrara was able to strip the ball from the NA running back after a 50 yard gain and possible touchdown. Ferrara than took the ball from Quarterback John McMillan and ran through a hole opened by his offensive line for an 85 yard touchdown and the Tigers were up 6-0.

North Attleboro tried to establish some momentum but was stopped by the Tigers after Joey Tepper broke through the line to record a tackle for a loss on 4th and 4. The OA squad also failed to move the ball and turned it over to North Attleboro on their own 35 yard line after a bad punt snap. The OA defense was back on the field and so was Stephen Mueller who forced a unsuccesful pass attempt on 3rd down and than joined teammate Dan Sullivan for a quarterback sack.

The Tigers again were forced to punt and this time North Attleboro ended the shutout. After good stops by Nick Chapman and Patrick McNeely, the Rockteers got a 20 yard gain on 4th down and scored on a 4 yard run off the left side to make the score 8-6 after the 2 point conversion.

The next possession by the Tigers didn't last long as McMillan was intercepted deep in their own end and North Attleboro was up 16-6. After the kickoff OA had another chance to get the offense moving again however things didn't get any better. McMillan was forced head-first into the turf after a 20 yard run and left the game midway through the 2nd quarter and was replaced by Cam McGrath. Both teams played great defense and the score remained 16-6 going into halftime.

The Tiger defense game out ready to go and forced the Rocketeers to punt for their first possession of the 3rd quarter. McGrath had OA moving the ball with a great 3rd and short run by fullback Joey Tepper and a defensive penalty on NA which resulted in another first down. However the North Attleboro defense held again and the Tigers were forced to send in Mike Ferrara to punt.

The Rocketeers used their running game to control the clock going into the fourth quarter and the game took another turn for the worse for OA as backup quarterback Cam McGrath left the game with an injury with about 6 minutes remaining. Unfortunately, North Attleboro scored again to go up 23-6 with 4:20 left in the game.

Tristan Flynn took over at Quarterback for the Tigers but the offense just couldn't shake the aggressive Rocketeers and were forced to punt. The Tigers didn't give up as Noah Ryan and Jamie Dixon made great plays to force North Attleboro to punt and the game ended 23-6.

Thursdays game with be at 3:30pm at Canton.