Cape Tech Football Gets Underdog Vocational Playoff Win

TURNERS FALLS – The Cape Cod Tech football team has made a habit out of battling through adversity.

That the Crusaders were even playing Franklin County Tech in the quarterfinals of the state vocational small school playoffs Saturday was testament to that. Cape Tech started the year 1-4 but rattled off four wins to end the season, getting the bracket’s seventh seed and a visit to the two-seed Eagles. 

What’s more, Cape Tech had won just a single away game all year — a Sept. 12 win against crosstown Monomoy. And to call that an away game, while factually true, is still a stretch given that Cape Tech didn’t even have to leave hometown Harwich for it.

So the Crusaders finished the regular season slate on a tear to qualify for the vocational playoffs. They had to dip into their personal fundraising money to secure a coach bus for the three-hour ride to Franklin County, a place and opponent with a recent painful history. In 2023, Cape Tech led late at Turners Falls in a playoff game, but the Eagles eventually came back.

None of it — the tough start, the long trip, the history, the seeding — seemed to shake Cape Tech. They defeated Franklin County 30-16 to advance to the semifinals in a game that, like their season as a whole, required a comeback.

“The way we carry ourselves at practice and the way we carry ourselves through adversity seemingly every week is just impeccable,” junior captain Chaz Thomas said.

Nearly instantly, Franklin County took an 8-0 lead off a game-opening kickoff returned for a touchdown by senior Maxon Brunette. The Crusaders quickly responded, with Thomas punching in a score and two-point conversion a few minutes later. 

In the second quarter, Franklin County sophomore Brady Gancarz ran for a touchdown. Again, Cape Tech answered, this time getting back up the field on a catch and run on third down by Thomas. Junior quarterback Daniel Handville then rushed for a touchdown, bouncing off the pile and finding space to finish the drive. Franklin County led 16-14 at the half.

During the break, Cape Tech head coach Calvin Castillias told the team to take a deep breath, calm down and enjoy the moment — like doing yoga. They were already used to tough beginnings, like the 1-4 stretch against formidable opponents in Tri-County (who finished 7-1) and South Shore Tech (the first seed in the vocational small school playoff bracket).

“No matter what the outcome of this is, I promise you guys, at the tail end of the season, it's going to pay off,” Castillias said he told the team about those early challenges. “I said, ‘Everything you’re going to learn, the lessons that we're going to learn and go through, put our bodies through, it's going to pay off.’”

It was crisp and cool at Franklin County’s natural grass field, a bleak sun trying to poke through an overcast sky. The whirs of small airplanes at the town airport next door mixed with the sounds of pre-snap callouts and crunching tackles.

The second half started inauspiciously for Cape Tech. Handville left the game injured on their first drive, helped off the field with the Crusaders approaching the red zone. Junior captain Thomas Allen came in and threw what essentially amounted to a punt via interception at Franklin County’s goal line. Cape Tech’s defense proceeded to nearly get a safety, then forced a punt at the 1-yard line. 

Handville returned to play for a fourth-and-9 at Franklin County’s 23-yard line. He tossed a pass up in the right corner of the end zone to sophomore wide receiver Jordyn Wilson, who had gotten stifled with contact on unsuccessful go routes all afternoon. This time, Wilson leapt and snagged the football with one hand for a play-of-the-game touchdown that put Cape Tech ahead.

“[Handville] looked me right in the eyes,” Castillias said. “He said, ‘We're not losing this game. I'm coming back in.’ and it was a play later that that happened. It's stuff for storybooks.”

Wilson said he had never made a one-handed catch like it.

“I don’t know how I got that,” he said. “I'm not going to lie. I saw my quarterback right here get hurt, so I had to capitalize and catch it for him. As soon as I saw that ball floating there, I knew I had to catch it.”

Cape Tech quickly got the ball back following an interception by junior captain Anthony Bartlett. On the very next play, Allen rushed up the middle for about a 40-yard touchdown, and the Crusaders took a 30-16 lead that they held for the rest of the game. Sophomore Landon Marrifield-Depaula also had an interception in the fourth quarter. 

“This team is incredible,” Castillias said. “Their resilience all season long, it's insane.”

The Crusaders now have six wins on the season. They’ll head to Palmer to face third-seed Pathfinder in the next round of the vocational playoffs Friday.

The motto all season for the team has been about battling through adversity. They did it against Franklin County and will look to do it again in the semifinals. They tell themselves that they’re not supposed to be here, at this stage in the season.

“The underdog mentality, I mean, they really bought into that,” Castillias said. “And it has worked, it really has.”