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SEEKONK - You could still hear the Dighton-Rehoboth marching band weaving its way through the Seekonk High parking lot and the stands were still only about three-quarters empty, yet Falcon head coach Dave Driscoll wasn't wasting any time, already getting a read on his team's opponent for next Tuesday's MIAA Playoffs by going over a scouting report with one of his assistants at midfield.

After all, Thursday's 20-6 victory over Thanksgiving Day rival Seekonk was just an appetizer of sorts, as the Falcons now turn their attention to Tuesday's playoffs and their opponent, the Eastern Athletic Conference champion Shamrocks of Bishop Feehan.

"It's a short turnaround, but we're okay with it, we'll take it. There are a lot of teams out there who won't be getting ready for another game, so we relish the chance to be in the playoffs," said Driscoll, after his team snapped a two-year, Turkey Day losing streak to Seekonk, but more importantly put a capper on a perfect 7-0 run through the South Coast Conference.

"Thanksgiving is always special and we weren't looking past this game at all. Our guys knew that. I told them (after Thursday's game) that now they can start thinking about the playoffs and the privilege of making it," said Driscoll. "Right now we're going to enjoy the fact that we went undefeated in the SCC. We've won the league a few times but this is only the third time we've been undefeated league champs, so we're going to enjoy that for a bit."

Seekonk was bidding for a three-game winning streak in the 44-year old holiday rivalry, a feat the Warriors have only accomplished two other times and not since a five-game streak from 1975-79. But Dighton-Rehoboth, which now leads the series between the two teams 27-16-1, proved too big up front and too stingy on defense. That, coupled with the fact that the Warriors had a touchdown negated by a penalty and another potential scoring drive stopped by a fumble at the D-R one-inch line, sealed Seekonk's fate. "They're a tough team, we knew that going in. They're not undefeated in the league for nothing," said Seekonk coach Jack Whalen, whose team finishes up at 5-3 in the league and 5-6 overall. "Still, we were right there. If we didn't get that one touchdown called back and we punch the other one in at the other end maybe it's a 21-20 game or something, and we have a good kicker, so you never know."

It never got to that, as D-R padded a 12-0 halftime lead with a fourth-quarter touchdown and didn't allow Seekonk to find the end zone until a Joe Teixeira scoring run with only 1:24 left in the game. A recovered onside kick and three kneel-downs later and the Falcons were hoisting the trophy.

That seemed to be a foregone conclusion as D-R used its size advantage up front to pound out 183 rushing yards and a 12-0 halftime lead. But the Warriors more than made things interesting at the outset of the second half, putting together what would be a 15-play drive that ate up more than five minutes of clock and covered 73 yards, but came up a yard - if that - short.

Gate closed

Seekonk did most of its damage with an unorthodox 'Swinging Gate' offensive formation, where two receivers lined up wide to the left, quarterback Jake Lyman and Teixeira lined up in the middle of the field and the other seven players shifted way to the right. With the middle of the field pretty much wide open, Lyman was able to hit Teixeira for big gains of 32 and 15 yards. On both occasions it was Teixeira who would snap the ball to Lyman sandlot style and then go out for a pass.

The Warriors were 4-for-4 on third down on the drive, got the benefit of a pass interference penalty on D-R to pick up one of those firsts, and also got a break when what appeared to be a Lyman fumble recovered by D-R's Anthony Souza was ruled an incomplete pass. However, Seekonk's good fortune on the drive ran out when Teixeira, trying his hardest to stretch the ball over the goal line, had it stripped from his hands and D-R's Brett Croteau recovered the fumble and ran it back a ways before being chased out of bounds.

"Huge play there," said Whalen. "Joey said he was in, but there were two referees there and they said he never crossed the goal line."

A penalty on Croteau's runback pinned D-R down at the 3-yard line, but the Falcons would put together a 97-yard drive that ate up almost six minutes of clock and culminated with a game-sealing, 2-yard scoring run by fullback Tyler Berry. Croteau's 18-yard hookup with Nate Sprague on third-and-8 kept the drive alive, as D-R went to reel off five first downs on six plays. Croteau also hit Brian Espinosa for a 15-yard pickup on fourth-and-9, then three plays later berry was in the end zone to make it 20-0.

"The goal-line stand and the fumble recovery was big and I thought the throw on third down to get us out of a hole was big, too," said Driscoll. "But congratulations to our offensive line. They played great and really got our running game going. The defense played great again and three touchdowns was enough."

Seekonk put together a nice 11-play, 79-yard scoring drive to avoid the shutout. Teixeira carried eight times for 44 yards on the drive, including a 10-yard TD run, on which he hurdled a D-R defender at the goal line, landing in the end zone for the score. Teixeira, who missed some of the third quarter with leg cramps, had 83 yards rushing and 54 yards receiving for the game. Another Seekonk senior, Kevin Pomerleau, had an outstanding last game for the Warriors as he was everywhere defensively, including keeping All-SCC receiver Espinosa pretty much under wraps and limiting him to two catches. D-R opened the scoring on its first possession of the game, Shane Caito with a 3-yard touchdown. That was all the scoring for the first quarter before Caito found the end zone again late, a 1-yard plunge with 18.4 seconds left making it 12-0.

Caito's second TD capped a 93-yard drive for the Falcons, D-R converting a fourth-and-6 when Croteau scrambled from the Seekonk 7-yard line down to the 1. Seekonk defenders celebrated wildly after the tackle, figuring they had just made a big stop to keep D-R off the scoreboard. Sure, the Warriors did keep Croteau out of the end zone but his run was good enough for a first down and one play later Caito made it 12-0.

Notes

Seekonk senior lineman Nick Bitsis, who was seriously injured after being struck by a car at the end of July, suited up for the season finale and made it onto the field for the game's final play, "he can barely walk without a limp never mind play football. But he wanted to be on the field for the last game and he made it out there," said Whalen... Driscoll lamented the fact that his team committed some costly penalties, the Falcons being flagged seven times for 65 yards... Lyman did a nice bit of improvising on one second-quarter play when he looked to be wrapped up for a sack but had the presence of mind to pitch to a bystanding Teixeira, who took off for 12 yards and a first down... Mike Braunsdorf and Sean Heaney had fumble recoveries for Seekonk while Bryan Rocha had an interception for D-R.