COHASSET – In an early South Shore League battle for the top spot, Cohasset survived a 13-0 deficit to rally for a 22-19 victory over Carver in another nailbiter between the rivals.

The Skippers (3-3) endured an early interception that turned into a Crusaders touchdown, three fourth down conversions, including a successful fake punt, and held on in the end as Carver controlled the clock for most of the fourth quarter but had nothing to show for the effort.

Cohasset trailed until 8:43 of the fourth quarter as secret offensive weapon Gus Greene came off the bench to relieve starting quarterback Mike Wildfire for a play inside the red zone. Greene scored on a keeper three yards out and topped it off with the two-point conversion to Shane Mulchay to give the Skippers the lead for good.

“Offensively, Gus is a good football player and defensively we bent but we didn’t break and if you’ve seen anything in the papers we’ve been in a two-point game, a one-point game, a one-score game, and these kids have been battling week in and week out,” said Cohasset head coach Pete Afanasiw. “Thankfully, everything fell our way, not everything but the chips fell our way, and the kids played hard and never gave up.”

It was the second Skippers’ touchdown before halftime that sparked the offense for Cohasset. After quarterback Jack Balzarini scored his second rushing touchdown for the Crusaders to give Carver the 19-7 lead, Cohasset drove 56 yards in 35 seconds to get within 19-14 with only two seconds left in the first half.

Wildfire, who finished an efficient 10-14 for 126 yards passing, 85 yards rushing and the first Cohasset touchdown run, found Nolan Flaherty on an outside post route untouched for the 11-yard score and the wave of momentum was all with Skipper Nation.

“It was a tough break. We made some mistakes, and their quarterback did a heck of a job, got loose a couple of times, and made his reads,” said Carver head coach, Chris Pabst. “That was a blow coming into the half and they definitely went into the half with momentum even though they were down. We have a lot of work to do, some miscommunications, and it’s an emotional game but I’d love to see them again.”

But after a scoreless third quarter and the fourth-quarter touchdown to start the fourth quarter for Cohasset, Teagan Zakrzewski did all he could on the final drive for Carver.

The junior tailback carried the ball 10 times for 52 yards on a 17-play drive and Carver (4-1) looked set to steal the last-minute victory with a first-and-ten at the 17 with 2:57 left to play.

But a false start backed up the offense and Balzarini could not provide any more magic as his pass fell short on fourth-and-long to end the drive with 1:49 left to play.

Balzarini did all he could with a perfect over-the-top 55-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Nolan Kenneally on the second set of downs of the game for Carver and scored on rushes from four and seven yards on the ground to have a hand in all three touchdowns.

“When our offense clicks, we have four or five kids that are really skilled with good hands and good feet and they run the ball well,” said Afanasiw. “To perform that two-minute drill (in the first half) was perfect execution. The extra points were the difference in the game and that’s what cost us two games earlier in the year.”