WRENTHAM — On Thanksgiving Day 2015, King Philip closed out a 5-6 season with a 28-0 win over Franklin.
Two years, and 24 straight wins later, the defending Division 1A Super Bowl champions shut out the Panthers again, 28-0, their final tuneup before taking on Lincoln-Sudbury in the Division 2 Bowl at Gillette Stadium.
“I know it means a lot to me and all the coaches and players,” said King Philip senior quarterback Brendan Lydon.
“A lot of time and effort is put in from summer workouts to practices and we just come together and win.”
Lydon got King Philip (11-0) on the board with a 1-yard keeper in the first quarter and tossed scoring strikes of 12 and 37 yards to Jack Piller and David Morganelli, respectively, in the final minute of second quarter.
The vital second-quarter sequence was made possible by a trio of stops by the KP defense. Despite Franklin’s 35-23 advantage in offensive plays for the half, the Warrior defense held off the Panthers’ aerial attack with a pair of interceptions.
The Warriors extended their lead on Lydon’s connection to Piller with 56 seconds left in the half, finishing off an 11-play, 88-yard drive. Shane Frommer (10 carries, 109 yards) rumbled for 45 yards on the drive, including a pair of third-down conversions to keep the possession alive.
“He’s our guy,” said King Philip coach Brian Lee. “We’re looking at it and it’s third and 6 and we’re like ‘all right, we should throw or we could just run it twice with Frommer.’ ”
On Franklin’s next play from scrimmage, KP’s Deric Casado intercepted a pass inside the Franklin 40. Two plays later, Lydon made the Panthers pay with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Morganelli.
“We didn’t really have the ball all first quarter,” said Lee. “We hit a couple of plays and really just wanted to get one in there, another one before the half. It really gave us a lot of breathing room to get our JV guys in there.”
Dan Shulman can be reached at [email protected].