WEST BRIDGEWATER — All week West Bridgewater head coach Justin Kogler reminded his team of the shellacking it took at the hands of Fairhaven last season.
A year later when facing the Blue Devils again, the Wildcats gave Kogler his top moment thus far in his seven seasons at the helm of West Bridgewater.
West Bridgewater and Fairhaven engaged in an epic back-and-forth offensive shootout that ended with the Wildcats prevailing with a wild 47-43 South Coast Conference victory.
“This is the biggest (win),” Kogler said. “Fairhaven is a perennial Super Bowl contender. They are again this year. They’re tough as hell. We forced some turnovers, which I knew we were going to do to hang with them.”
Ty Holmes (12 carries, 125 yards) spearheaded the monster offensive performance for West Bridgewater (4-1) with four total touchdowns — three of them came on the ground.
But Holmes’ 41-yard touchdown reception from Ryan Nunes (8-for-12, 138 yards, two TDs) as he beat his defender down the sideline on a go route with 4:07 left ended up being the decisive score. In fact, Holmes was the one who called the play and it was the first time the Wildcats ran it all season.
“He said, ‘If we come out in a certain formation, I can beat my guy,’ ” Kogler said. “So I said, ‘OK, do it.’ And he did it.”
It felt like Fairhaven (5-1) had one last response late in the fourth quarter until West Bridgewater came up with a massive defensive stand.
The Blue Devils marched to West Bridgewater’s 13-yard line with under 20 seconds remaining but the Wildcats held firm, forcing an incompletion before Rojon Burkes and Cole Lecomec came together for a sack on Evan Lamontagne, who threw two touchdowns and ran for two more in the loss.
The Wildcats got pressure on Lamontagne again on the final play of the game and his pass sailed out of the back of the end zone to send West Bridgewater into a celebration.
“Everyone doubted us in this game,” Holmes said. “In our team’s mind, we did not doubt ourselves. We went in every snap and played our hardest. And that’s what got us this win.”
West Bridgewater’s defense also forced three turnovers, none bigger than when Nick Navin recovered a botched handoff at the Wildcats 5-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Nunes then took off on a 93-yard run before Ton Polidori plunged in from a yard out to give West Bridgewater a 41-35 lead.
Fairhaven responded thanks to a 33-yard touchdown run by Lamontagne on fourth down — it was the third time in the game Fairhaven scored on fourth down — but Holmes’ magic was just a little too much for the Blue Devils.
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