Dublin, Hanes celebrate homecoming in grand fashion

Flash Staff Report
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(September 30, 2017) — Josh Hanes accounted for six touchdowns and Dublin (2-3) pitched a 26-0 shutout after halftime in a 45-29 homecoming win over Bosqueville (1-4) at Memorial Stadium Friday.

One week after erasing an 18-point second half deficit by scoring the final 21 on homecoming night in Breckenridge, Dublin wasn’t about to let someone wreck their own homecoming festivities.

So the Lions left the distractions to those coming home, and focused themselves on Bosqueville, just a week removed from scoring 38 points – albeit in a loss – on typically defensive Crawford, a 2A Division II state finalist in 2016.

The result of that focus was a second half that may have featured the best defense played by Dublin in any of its six years under head coach Bob Cervetto, who concludes pre-district seeing his team gather momentum with plans on making a third playoff trip in four years.

Hanes was 14-21 passing for 224 yards and two scores in addition to rushing 18 times for 87 yards and four touchdowns. He delivered five passes to bBilly Dale Mercer for 74 yards, while Keith Wright helped him on the ground with 83 yards and a score on 12 carries. Wright even broke off a 45-yard burst for Dublin’s longest run of the night.

Until the final drive of the game, Bosqueville had only three second-half first downs. The biggest defensive play on a night full of them was made by the versatile Mercer, who returned an interception 72 yards.

Dublin pulled within one on a 28-yard run by Hanes to begin the second half scoring, then took the lead for good when Blake Porte caught a 21-yard TD pass from Hanes. A Hanes 12 yard TD run followed by a keeper for a two-point conversion, and a 3-yard run to pay dirt by Wright put hte game away in the fourth quarter.

Bosqueville was game early, following up a Hanes 18-yard TD to Mercer with touchdown runs of 8 and 63 yards to lead 12-.

The Lions jumped ahead by a point with an 11-yard Hanes TD gallop and the PAT by Nabor Calderon, but Bosqueville answered with another big play, a 72-yard pass and catch TD.

The back and forth continued with a5-yard TD by the Dublin QB, but Bosqueville completed the first half with a two-yard TD run for a 26-19 advantage that didn’t last long once the bands and Dandilion dance team vacated the the field so the Lion defense could take it over.

Back-to-back wins entering the bye has changed the outlook for a Lions team that was unable to capitalize on its explosiveness because of turnovers earlier in the season. Dublin moved the ball better than anyone this season when Hanes was 19-24 passing for 303 yards on 2A Division II frontrunner Albany, but the Lions lost 6 fumbles including four straight with each leading to an Albany touchdown in that.

Dublin was fumble prone again against Teague, a favorite in 3A Division II, but the Lions turned the corner with last week’s second half comeback and held onto the ball again in their homecoming game.

District play is next after the idle week, and Dublin will be fighting for two wins, which would be enough to sen the Lions back to playoffs, where in 2014 and 2015 Cervetto led them to back-to-back bi-district titles for the first time school history.