Benji Baptiste and Old Rochester take five straight wins to unbeaten Hudson in the Division 6 Round of 8

MATTAPOISETT Benji Baptiste and Old Rochester take a five-game winning streak to unbeaten Hudson on Thursday night, back to the town where their playoff run ended a year ago, with a Division 6 semifinal at stake.

No. 7 Old Rochester (8-1) plays No. 2 Hudson (9-0) in the Round of 8 at 6 p.m. at the Morgan Bowl at Hudson High School, according to the MIAA's Division 6 bracket and Old Rochester's schedule. Hudson beat the Bulldogs 34-13 in last year's quarterfinal at Hudson, Old Rochester's MaxPreps schedule shows.

The winner moves on to a state semifinal against the winner of No. 3 Abington and No. 11 Joseph Case, who play at the same hour in Abington, so a Bulldogs win and a Case upset would put two South Coast teams on the same field with a trip to the final on the line.

Baptiste carries the load

Baptiste, a junior running back and one of five team captains, has carried the Bulldogs into November. In the 41-14 Round of 16 win over No. 10 Bay Path on Nov. 5 he ran 16 times for 123 yards and scored on runs of 7, 4 and 47 yards, by the scoring summary and statistics coach Bryce Guilbeault sent South Coast 360.

A week earlier at Somerset Berkley he set the tone on the first play, bringing the opening kickoff back to the Raiders 9, and scored from 6 yards on the second play of the drive. He added a 37-yard touchdown run, cutting outside into open field, and a third score before halftime of a 42-7 win, as we reported that night.

He came into the tournament with 21 touchdowns by the Boston Globe's and the Standard-Times' counts, so the Bay Path night pushed him to 24, including five in a 53-18 win over Bishop Fenwick on Oct. 16, the Globe reported.

Nelson, Tobin and a patient ground game

Junior quarterback Connor Nelson ran nine times for 121 yards and a touchdown against Bay Path. Guilbeault said in his email that Nelson "had a terrific night orchestrating the offense" and "understands what defenses are trying to take away." At Somerset Berkley, Nelson found his tight end up the seam for a 28-yard touchdown pass on third and 17.

Senior fullback Matt Tobin, a captain, scored the 6-yard touchdown that followed the Bulldogs' goal-line stand against Bay Path, and at Somerset Berkley he took the third quarter for himself, scoring once untouched and again from 27 yards. Jermaine Boardman scored from 7 yards and ran in a two-point try against Bay Path.

At Somerset Berkley, Nelson took the snaps under center, usually with two backs behind him. Baptiste or Tobin got the ball up the middle, Baptiste took pitches to the edge, a double handoff sent Tobin outside, and Nelson kept it himself off the fake. "We preach patience on offense," Guilbeault said after the Bay Path game, adding that 3 or 4 yards "can turn into 7 or 8 yards as the game goes on."

A defense that bends and holds

Old Rochester has allowed 133 points in nine games, 14.8 a game, and no opponent other than Foxborough, which won 35-14 on Oct. 2, has scored more than 18, by the results on the Bulldogs' MaxPreps schedule (our math). Bay Path had first and goal early in the second quarter, down 7-0, and came away with nothing, by the running score on Bay Path's own Facebook page.

"The defense really stiffened up inside the 20 yard line," Guilbeault said. "Bend but don't break mentality."

Tobin, the fullback, is also the defense's leader at linebacker, and captain Owen Pelland, 6-foot-1 and 270 pounds, is "one of the more physically imposing players at this level," the Globe's preseason preview said. Logan Hiles had two sacks against Bishop Stang and returned an interception 44 yards for a touchdown against Bishop Fenwick, the Standard-Times reported, and senior captain Hunter Horsey is back this fall after missing his junior season with a torn knee ligament, the Globe reported.

Hudson: nine wins, none close

Hudson has outscored opponents 331-117, about 37 points to 13 a game, and its closest games were a pair of 26-14 wins over Shrewsbury and Westborough in September, by its MaxPreps schedule (our math). The Hawks went 4-0 to win their Midland-Wachusett league and scored 63 at Auburn on Oct. 9. In the Round of 16 they beat Bishop Fenwick 35-14, the same Crusaders team Old Rochester beat 53-18.

Senior quarterback Logan Dome, No. 1, runs the offense. Hudson has entered statistics on MaxPreps for only some of its games, and in those Dome completed 47 of 64 passes, 73%, for 940 yards, 12 touchdowns and one interception, and ran for 200 yards and seven more touchdowns. For the whole regular season the Globe credited him with 1,289 passing yards, 556 rushing yards and 29 total touchdowns.

His favorite target is junior Mason Bastien, No. 6, a receiver and strong safety who caught 17 passes for 477 yards, 28.1 yards a catch, with four touchdowns and a long of 78, in five games. Senior back Toby Edie, No. 24, ran for 240 yards and six touchdowns. On defense, senior Blake Freitas, No. 8, has four interceptions for 40 return yards, and senior Cristiano De Oliveira Filho, No. 7, a free safety and receiver, made 10 of 11 extra points.

Zac Attaway is Hudson's head coach. The Hawks beat Fairhaven in the 2024 Division 6 final.

What to watch

By our read, Hudson's passing game comes first: Dome has completed nearly three of every four throws, and Bastien averaged more than 28 yards a catch, so the Bulldogs' secondary and its pursuit on the edge face their biggest test. Going the other way, the Bulldogs want long, grinding drives that keep Dome on the sideline, the way 3 or 4 yards a carry turned into 41 points against Bay Path. Old Rochester has also won at least one tournament game in each of its last six MIAA tournaments, counting Bay Path, by the results the Wanderer, the Globe and the Sippican Week reported, and Thursday decides whether this team goes further than last year's.

Kickoff, tickets and how to watch

Kickoff is 6 p.m. at the Morgan Bowl, Hudson High School, 69 Brigham St., Hudson. Tickets are $11.50, fees included, sold online only through GoFan under "Hudson vs Old Rochester Regional," by the MIAA's fall tournament price list and the GoFan listing, and all seats are general admission.

HUDTV, Hudson's public access station, has streamed every Hudson football game this fall on its YouTube channel, the most recent the Round of 16 win over Bishop Fenwick on Nov. 5. 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. Either way, both teams play on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, Nov. 26, at 10 a.m.: Apponequet at Old Rochester's David S. Hagan Stadium in Mattapoisett, and Hudson at Marlborough.

Our game stories: Old Rochester turns away Bay Path 41-14 and Old Rochester beats Somerset Berkley 42-7. Every South Coast final is on the Friday Night Scoreboard.

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