Taunton football moves to 2-0 after beating Durfee

TAUNTON — Taunton High quarterback Noah Leonard was excited for the first home opener of the season.

It showed on Friday night against non-league opponent Durfee.

"Offensive line blocked great tonight," Leonard said. "They did a fantastic job."

The unbeaten Tigers scored 27 unanswered points in the first half and cruised to a 27-7 victory over the Hilltoppers before a large crowd at Aleixo "Tiger" Stadium on the campus of Taunton High School.

With the victory, Taunton improves to 2-0 on the season.

Running back Tryton Zavala added a pair of rushing touchdowns in the win

"We had a big stop on defense and then scored on the first play," Tigers head coach Brad Sidwell said. "I thought we did a good job throwing the ball tonigh. We made less mistakes than they did tonight. Give those kids at Durfee credit, they fought hard until the end."

Leonard threw for a pair of touchdowns in the victory. The Taunton signal caller was accurate all night, finishing 10-for-13 with 120 yards passing. He even had a big run just before halftime — a 35 yard scramble which led to the Tigers' fourth touchdown of the half.

"It just felt good tonight and my receivers got open," Leonard said. "Everything worked tonight."

Hilltoppers head coach Taylor Brown said football is a game of inches. Several times his team had a chance to make things close in the first half but was denied each opportunity.

"We have to stop making mistakes early in the game," Brown said. "That led to two quick scores and it snowballed from there. But I'm proud of the kids. They played hard and listened to what I said all night. That's all what you can ask for. We'll just try and keep up chins up and hope for the best next week."

Durfee (0-2) won the opening toss and elected to receive. The Hilltoppers were stopped on downs and was forced to punt.

However the punt was botched and the Tigers took over at the Durfee 15. On the ensuing play, Leonard hooked up with Brayden Merrill for a touchdown on the corner of the end zone to give Taunton the early lead. Michael Quinn added the point after.

The Hilltoppers drove into Tiger territory on the second possession but was stopped on fourth down by inches to give the ball back to Taunton.

Zavala carried a bulk of the Tiger offense and opened up the scoring in the second quarter with an 11-yard touchdown to up Taunton's margin to 14-0 after Quinn's extra point.

Durfee punted once more, which led to Zavala's second touchdown of the night to give the Tigers a 21-0 advantage. The big play of the drive was a 37-yard completion from Leonard to Daniel MacDougall.

Leonard capped off a brilliant half with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Charles Westner with 24 second before halftime as Taunton went into the locker rooms with a 27-0 lead.

The Hilltoppers played better defense in the second half but turned the ball over on their first drive as Quinn came away with the interception. Durfee finally put together a solid drive in the fourth quarter as senior running back Elijah Concepcion scored the Hilltoppers' first touchdown of the season from six yards out with 8:01 left in the game.

"Our message at halftime was don't stop fighting," Brown said. "We got a couple of nice fourth down stops and our freshman quarterback stepped it up for the second week in a row. We have some positives we can build off of."

Sidwell said there's still work to be done.

"We're on to the next one," he said.