BYFIELD – Tabor Academy defensive coordinator Tomas Rubio works hard every day on the turnover circuit for his defense to meet its weekly goal of forcing at least two turnovers.
Saturday afternoon, as the offense sometimes struggled to consistently move the ball, those skills were one of the Seawolves’ greatest strengths as part of a 42-6 rout of Governor’s Academy in Independent School League action.
Dameer Phifer (four receptions, 65 yards) caught two touchdown passes and ran in a third, pairing with two touchdown runs from Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni (99 rushing yards) to account for most of Tabor’s (2-0) offense. But many of those scores were set up by short field position created by two fumbles, an interception, three sacks and four turnovers-on-downs within a signature outing from the defense.
Governor’s (1-1) wasn’t able to score until the last two minutes.
“We’re lucky where our front six – they’re aggressive, they’re smart, they’re powerful – so if we can keep everything in front of us, we typically have a good outcome,” said Seawolves head coach Jeff Moore. “I think it’s important that when we had the chance to close the door, we did. But I thought we left a ton of meat on the bone, especially in the third quarter. … For us, we’ve got these explosive plays, but the consistency needs to be a little bit better.”
After forcing a three-and-out deep in Govs territory that was punted just 32 yards from the end zone, Djeumeni Kemeni took three carries for 23 yards and a 5-yard touchdown.
Govs running back Dawson DuBose (175 rushing yards, TD) gained some good chunks on the ensuing possession, but was stripped on a would-be third-down conversion around midfield. Tabor couldn’t capitalize on that opportunity, though Djeumeni Kemeni added a 4-yard TD run soon after Tabor hauled in an interception on a Govs fake punt attempt.
It was a turnover-on-downs in the second quarter that led to a 2-for-2, 46-yard sequence from quarterback Peter Bourque (10-for-18, 136 yards, two touchdowns), connecting for a touchdown with Phifer for a 21-0 lead.
Governor’s Academy fumbled again three plays later, which Bourque again followed with a touchdown pass to Phifer after an 11-play, 55-yard drive.
Carter Gooden was a major standout up front with 1.5 sacks and continuous pressure in the backfield, as were linebackers Derek Moreau (sack) and Brendan Farhat. Marcus Almada plugged gaps and split the sack with Gooden.
“They do an unbelievable job of running to the football,” Moore said. “We’ve got to play some of the down-block, off-tackle stuff a little bit better, but we’re super, super physical up front, which showed and paid off. We did a pretty good job of rushing the passer. The linebackers played really, really well and played fast, and in the secondary, we just did a good job.”
Tabor’s best drive came in the third quarter, going 62 yards on six plays that Phifer finished with a 2-yard TD run on the jet sweep. Each of the next three Governor’s drives ended in a turnover-on-downs, up until DuBose went 77 yards on two rushes for a touchdown against the Seawolves’ backups.
