Aedan Borges and Joseph Case take their upset of Fairhaven to No. 3 Abington in the Division 6 Round of 8

SWANSEA Aedan Borges and Joseph Case, a week removed from ending Fairhaven's title defense, go to No. 3 Abington on Thursday night with a spot in the Division 6 semifinals on the line.

No. 11 Case (7-2) plays Abington (7-2) in the Round of 8 at 6 p.m. at Abington's Memorial Field, 1 Ralph Hamlin Way, according to the MIAA's Division 6 bracket and both teams' schedules. The MIAA first listed the game for Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m.; its bracket now lists Thursday at 6, and by late Thursday morning Case's and Abington's own schedules matched.

The winner meets the winner of No. 7 Old Rochester at No. 2 Hudson, played at the same hour, in a state semifinal. Wins by Case and the Bulldogs would make it an all-South Coast semifinal.

Borges, with the ball in his hands

Borges, No. 2, is a senior whom Case lists at running back and free safety, and he kicks, too. He, Cooper Bert and Cole Rego are the team's senior captains, the Globe's preseason preview said. In the five games of his that Case has entered on MaxPreps, he ran 72 times for 578 yards, 8 yards a carry, with 12 touchdowns, and made 19 of 20 extra points.

His whole season runs bigger than those games, since he came into the playoffs with 1,352 rushing yards, 1,098 passing yards and 24 total touchdowns, then ran for 182 yards and scored all six Case touchdowns at Fairhaven, the Boston Globe reported.

The last of them won it, after Fairhaven faced fourth down at its own 38 with about seven minutes left, the ball came loose, and Case returned the fumble 36 yards for a touchdown, then ran in the two-point try for a 42-31 lead, as we reported from the game. Fairhaven coach Derek Almeida summed up the Cardinals in an email to South Coast 360 the next morning: "That is a very good football team with a top player in the state with the ball in his hands all the time."

The Cardinals around him

Junior running back Brett Silva, No. 25, has 288 yards on 40 carries, 7.2 a carry. Senior Matt Bogdan, No. 10, a receiver and cornerback, has run for two touchdowns and has an interception, and junior Christian Valero-ponte, No. 12, a receiver and strong safety, has two rushing touchdowns and has also thrown for Case.

Bert, No. 4, a tight end and outside linebacker, leads the receivers in those games with 89 yards on two catches and has an interception of his own. Junior tight end and defensive end Troy Medas, No. 34, leads the team with 15 tackles and caught a 40-yard touchdown pass. Rego, No. 5, plays middle linebacker and tight end, and junior Anderson Emard, No. 14, a receiver and free safety, returned two fumbles for touchdowns in the 35-8 win at West Bridgewater on Oct. 23, the Globe reported.

Up front, the roster lists seniors Cameron Garcia, No. 66, at guard and tackle, Kaiser Shahdan, No. 72, at tackle and Gavin Vital, No. 75, at guard and defensive tackle, with senior defensive ends Malakai Dowling, No. 8, and Noah Cabral, No. 16. That defense allowed 99 points in eight regular-season games and shut out Tri-County 31-0 and Bourne 64-0, by the results on Case's MaxPreps schedule (our math).

How Case got here

The Cardinals lost their opener to Diman 12-7, then won six of their last seven regular-season games, losing only 45-37 at Fairhaven on Oct. 16. They beat Southeastern, Tri-County, Bourne, Seekonk, West Bridgewater and Sharon, finished second in the South Coast Gold at 3-1 and came into the tournament as the 11th seed. At Fairhaven on Nov. 5 they trailed 19-7 early in the second quarter and outscored the Blue Devils 35-18 from there, against a team that had beaten Case in all six meetings since 2021. It was Case's first playoff win since 1992, the Globe reported.

Coach Mike Cloutier is in his first season at Case after one at Falmouth and five at Dedham, the Enterprise of Falmouth reported, and Case went 4-7 last fall, by the Globe's preseason preview, which counted 55 players at camp. "Defensively, we are a very strong team that can create some problems and offensively, we have a lot of different ways to attack people with the depth that we have," Cloutier told the Globe in September.

Abington: points in bunches

Abington has scored 300 points in nine games, about 33 a game, and scored 40 or more five times, by its MaxPreps schedule (our math). Its losses came against top seed Norwell, 42-14, on Oct. 1, and Milford, 28-14, on Oct. 16, and it has won three straight, 18-7 at Rockland, 56-36 over East Bridgewater and 46-28 over No. 14 Wilmington in the Round of 16. The Green Wave have also allowed 218 points, 24.2 a game, including 64 in their last two games.

Coach Ed Reilly is in his third season and runs the Wing T, and his son Jack is the senior quarterback, the Globe's preseason preview said. Jack Reilly had 1,200 passing yards and 15 total touchdowns in the regular season, then threw for 192 yards and four touchdowns to three receivers against Wilmington, the Globe reported. The Globe's preseason preview named lineman Thomas Muniz, 6-foot-5 and 315 pounds, captains Matthew Pifer, Brendan Ward and Brady Augusta, and Nazir Paulding, who it said could take a leap as a playmaker.

Abington went 9-2 last fall and lost in this same round at home, 24-14 to Bishop Fenwick, its MaxPreps schedule shows.

What to watch

By our read, Case has run for better than 7 yards a carry, and Abington has given up 64 points in its last two games, so the Cardinals will try to keep Borges and Silva moving the chains and Reilly on the sideline. Going the other way, an Abington offense that has scored 40 or more five times, with a quarterback who threw four touchdown passes last week, tests a Case secondary of Bogdan, Emard and Borges at free safety. Turnovers swung the Fairhaven game, a recovered pitch at the Fairhaven 39 and the late fumble return, and loose balls could decide this one too.

Kickoff, tickets and how to follow

Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Memorial Field, 1 Ralph Hamlin Way, Abington. Tickets are $11.50, fees included, sold online only through GoFan under "Abington vs Joseph Case," by the MIAA's fall tournament price list and the GoFan listing, and all seats are general admission. South Coast 360 will have the final and a full game story Thursday night.

What comes next

Semifinal tickets cost $13.60 on the same MIAA price list; the bracket has not yet posted a semifinal date or site. Win or lose Thursday, both teams play on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, Nov. 26, at 10 a.m.: Case at Somerset Berkley's Hanson Memorial Stadium and Whitman-Hanson at Abington.

Our game story: Case ends unbeaten Fairhaven's title defense, 42-37. Every South Coast final is on the Friday Night Scoreboard.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.