Dan Bennett was a linebacker on the 1978 Dover-Sherborn football team that earned a share of the Tri-Valley League title.
Forty-three years later, his son Johnny played a large part in ending the drought.
Bennett caught a touchdown pass, returned a punt 50 yards to set up a score, and picked off two passes as the Raiders handed previously unbeaten Norton its first loss, 35-0, to earn no worse than a share of the league title. If Bellingham beats Norton on Thanksgiving, Dover-Sherborn would be the undisputed league champions.
“It was so exciting, I’ve never been part of anything as exciting as that,” Bennett said. “We won the state lacrosse title last year, but (Friday night) was more thrilling.”
As Bennett and his teammates basked in the glory, Dan Bennett stood off to the side basking in the glory. The team’s linebacker coach, Bennett mentored most of the current Raiders in youth football and sensed that group could eventually make a name for themselves at the high school level.
“Those kids were good in a lot of sports,” Bennett said. “In youth football, we went up against Wellesley, Norwood, Framingham, Natick and Lincoln-Sudbury and had winning seasons. I just see them competing in the TVL and being successful.
“It’s been great to coach with my son, but coaching all these kids and seeing them progress into young men has been excellent. Since many of them stayed in the town, they are like my extended family,”
Aside from having a Bennett playing key roles in the run to the title, the two teams also had to overcome some adversity in the form of an early loss. In 1978, an early loss to Millis forced the Raiders to share the TVL title with Westwood and Millis.
This year’s Raiders squad had their brush with perfection come to an end in the fifth week. After rolling through their first four opponents by double digits, Dover-Sherborn got a dose of reality when defending TVL Small champion Bellingham handed them a 35-24 setback.
“I think we were feeling ourselves a little bit and Bellingham came in and played an awesome game,” Bennett said. “We learned that night that we have to bring it every week. From that point, we just went to practice and everyone began firing on all cylinders, there was a lot more pop in our practices.”
Since then, Dover-Sherborn held up its end of the bargain, beating a good Medway team (35-24) and Millis (33-0) to set the stage for Friday’s night official coming-out party.
“We’re not the biggest team but our mentality is that we are going to play hard and aggressively on both sides of the ball,” Bennett said. “We are pretty athletic and we fly around the ball on defense. That’s why we’ve been so successful.”
Something Dan Bennett could relate to.
Sweet 16
1. CATHOLIC MEMORIAL (8-0): Once the Knights smell blood in the water, watch out.
2. EVERETT (7-0): Crimson Tide now gets a chance to prove themselves against the iron in Div. 1.
3. CENTRAL CATHOLIC (7-1): Long trip south didn’t affect the Raiders.
4. LINCOLN-SUDBURY (7-0): Warriors had their way with all seven regular season opponents.
5. XAVERIAN (6-2): Hawks did everything right against Catholic Memorial for the first 19 minutes. It’s the last 28 they’d prefer to forget.
6. FRANKLIN (7-0): Panthers defense was outstanding against Milford.
7. READING (8-0): Quarterback James Murphy capped off a terrific regular season with a five-TD effort against Lexington.
8. ST. JOHN’S PREP (6-2): Eagles need to find some answers on defense and have to do it quickly.
9. MARBLEHEAD (7-0): Magicians take care of Danvers to head to the postseason with an unblemished record.
10. MARSHFIELD (7-1): Rams end the regular season with seven straight wins.
11. KING PHILIP (6-1): This could be one of Brian Lee’s best coaching jobs.
12. DUXBURY (6-1): Ended the regular season with a solid victory over Whitman-Hanson.
13. SCITUATE (7-1): Winning the Patriot Fisher title is nice. Getting Keegan Sullivan back for the playoffs would be nicer.
14. NATICK (7-1): Clearly proved they were the class of the Bay State Conference.
15. BARNSTABLE (6-2): Give them credit for not being afraid to schedule nonleague contests against some of the big boys in Eastern Mass.
16. STONEHAM (8-0): Spartans backs enjoying running behind Peter Godfrey and the rest of the talented offensive line.
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November 01, 2021 at 02:30AM
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Danny V’s High school football Sweet 16 - Boston Herald
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