WESTBROOK — Falmouth defensive tackle and captain Drew Chamberlain secured a 14-7 Campbell Conference football victory over Westbrook with a fourth-down sack late in the game.

But he was hardly in a mood to celebrate afterward.

His team is undefeated after two games, true, but Falmouth had two touchdowns called back because of holding and set up Westbrook’s lone score with a double penalty.

“It’s nice to be 2-0, but we’ve got to be a lot better than that,” Chamberlain said. “We played terrible tonight. We’re a much better football team than that.”

If not for a goal-line stand at the end of the first half, when Westbrook failed to score on three plays from the 1 and another from the 4, the Blue Blazes (0-2) might have pulled off an upset on a night when they had negative rushing yardage against a superior Falmouth line.

“Not scoring at the end of the half hurt us,” said Westbrook Coach Jeff Guerette. “As coaches, we’ve got to do a better job in that situation. I need to do a better job there making sure we punch that one in.”

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Falmouth had taken a 6-0 lead on its second drive, when Connor Aube romped untouched for 55 yards on an inside reverse. The point-after kick caromed off the right upright and fell away.

Aube finished with 94 yards on 15 carries and Brandon Martin ran 12 times for 71 yards, but Falmouth was frustrated by four fruitless forays into the red zone, twice in each half.

Nine penalties for 90 yards caused part of the problem. The other was a swarming Westbrook defense that sacked sophomore quarterback Jack Bryant five times, with Brandon Lajoie responsible for three of them.

Falmouth drove to the 4 early in the second quarter before the first holding penalty negated a touchdown run. Another Falmouth drive reached the 18 before Westbrook defensive end David Redmond, from the ground, clung to Bryant’s jersey for a 13-yard sack.

Just before halftime, Westbrook drove 74 yards on three plays – aided by 30 yards in Falmouth penalties – before stalling at the 1. Two incompletions and a loss of 3 on a quarterback keeper set up a fourth-down play with the final seconds ticking off. A bad snap led to a hasty swing pass that had no chance.

“The positive,” said Falmouth Coach John Fitzsimmons, “is that when crunch time came, four downs from 1 yard out, they stood tall. And at the end of the game, when they needed to get some first downs, they did.”

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Westbrook opened the third quarter with a long pass that was intercepted by Austin Wheeler, but Falmouth promptly fumbled it back and Zack Hutchins recovered to set up a 29-yard scoring pass from Bailey Sawyer to Bailey Ryan, who booted the conversion for a 7-6 lead.

Sawyer was 14 of 29 for 161 yards and two interceptions. Ryan had 13 catches for 158 yards.

Falmouth responded with an eight-play scoring drive. Bryant connected twice on passes to his brother, Sean, the second resulting in a 29-yard score when the receiver reached out with the ball just inside the left pylon.

Martin ran for the conversion to make it 14-7 and Falmouth’s defense did the rest.

“We’re fortunate to have a good team,” Fitzsimmons said, “but we have a lot of work to do to become a great team.”

 


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