Monomoy Football Saves Its Best For Last, Thumps St. John Paul II On Thanksgiving Eve

SANDWICH – It’s not unusual for coaches to hope that their team is playing its best at the end of the season.

That’s exactly what Monomoy football coach Rob Sliney received from his Sharks squad when they traveled to Sandwich High School to take on St. John Paul II on Thanksgiving Eve.

Monomoy turned in its best performance of the season as it dominated in all phases of the game en route to an emphatic 42-0 victory over JP II to take a 3-2 lead in the series between the rivals.

“This is huge,” said Sliney. “For anyone that has ever played the game, having your best game as your last game is amazing. This is a memory they are going to have forever.”

Monomoy (4-7) wasted little time before taking control of the game. After a big return by senior Josh Cook-Pina on the opening kickoff, senior Reign Stephens started the scoring off with a 1-yard touchdown to cap off the Sharks’ opening drive.

The Sharks stuck to the ground on their second possession, with junior quarterback Chase Yarletts finding the end zone on a 22-yard touchdown run. His classmate, Dillon Chapman, rushed for a 2-point conversion to extend the visitors’ lead to 14-0 by the end of the first quarter.

As good as the team started the first half, it paled in comparison to the way it finished in the final minute.

Yarletts connected with senior Jack McCarty for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 16.5 seconds remaining in the second quarter, then senior Quinn Connors returned an interception 62 yards for a score with no time remaining to give Monomoy a dominant 30-0 lead at the intermission.

“When I got that ball, I knew I was gone,” said Connors, a Harwich resident.

Stephens closed out his career with another touchdown run — a 19-yard score — in the third quarter before Chapman added a rushing TD in the fourth to put an exclamation point on the victory.

For Sliney, it was as good of a performance as he could have hoped for.

“I told them leading up to this game, ‘This is the start of next season,’” Sliney said. “I told them, ‘Nothing before this matters, except for this one game. We’ve got one opportunity and we’re going to ride this through.’”

It was an especially gratifying ending to a season that saw the Sharks battle adversity, especially a collection of injuries, throughout the fall.

Sliney said his lasting memory of this year’s team will be the way it didn’t give up when things got tough.

“I’m very proud of these guys,” he said. “They did everything I asked of them all season long. They fought through the adversity and the injuries. Starting with 39 players and dropping down to, I think, we had 23 today…fighting through all of that stuff is huge.”