MARION – Tabor Academy had yet to taste victory in a NEPSAC bowl game since 2016, but when you line up in the backfield with the dynamic duo of Hugo Djeumeni and Peter Bourque – good things come to Seawolves who wait.

Djeumeni and Bourque combined for all seven touchdowns for Tabor Academy (8-1) in a 48-20 rout over Dexter Southfield in the Kevin Macdonald Bowl in front of a packed house.

Djeumeni, who is headed to Yale next season to play football for the Bulldogs, had the first three touchdowns of the game for the Seawolves on the ground. Djeumeni scored from two-yards, 56-yards, and 17-yards to put things out of reach early.

The dynamic senior tailback finished his illustrious two-year career at Tabor with a total of 67 touchdowns and eclipsed 2,000 yards this season with a game-high 195 yards on the ground on only 18 carries to give Djeumeni a final tally of 2,140 yards rushing in 2024.

“Coming into this game, we knew we had to give it our all, because last year really set a fire under us and we knew we had to leave this field as champions,” said Djeumeni, referring to the bowl loss to Buckingham Browne & Nichols in 2023. “The offensive line did a great job of doing that, they moved bodies, opened holes and I just followed them. Just like every other game.”

Dexter Southfield had their chances as they stopped the Seawolves on their first series only to fumble the ball away on their first shot at the end zone as Marcus Almada scooped up the turnover to set up Djeumeni’s first touchdown.

While the Shields cut the deficit to one, 7-6, on the next series with a Joshua Berglund 43-yard touchdown reception from Rory Funke, it was a failed fourth-and-goal from the seven-yard line that doomed Dexter Southfield along with untimely penalties throughout the first half.

Paulo Grasso knocked away a Funke pass in the end zone which would have given the Shields the lead with nine minutes to go in the first half and the snowball of momentum was like an avalanche for the Seawolves offense.

“This is a team you cannot afford to have turnovers, can’t afford to get behind the sticks with some of our false starts especially in the first half, but we talked all week about playing every play and fighting to the end and our guys certainly did that,” said Dexter Southfield head coach Casey Day. “We just ran into a team that is extremely talented and played extremely well.”

The Shields’ (8-2) only blemish coming into the contest was a one-point loss to the undefeated St. Paul’s team in their division and did get a solid game on the ground from Tyson Thomas, who finished with 183 yards on 27 carries along with a breakaway 56-yard touchdown, but the Seawolves were just too much throughout.

Djeumeni inadvertently seemed to pave the way for the future and handed the touchdown baton to his backfield partner Bourque who would finish off Dexter Southfield the rest of the way.

Bourque (213 yards passing) came alive with the team comfortably in the lead to throw two touchdown passes to Kaiden Drinkwater (60 yards; 16 yards), another to Dameer Phifer, and finished off the championship cake with a four-yard rushing touchdown of his own with 2:49 left in regulation.