FOOTBALL AT FENWAY

Continued from front page which was found after Exilhomme rushed for ten yards, followed up by junior Davien McGufe’s 21-yard rush to kickstart the Golden Tornados’ ofense.

Medford would produce some costly penalties, such as pass interference, that gave Malden a frst down and a following face mask tackle, and another automatic frst down. With excellent feld positioning, Exilhomme was eager to score his second touchdown of the game after he picked up 15 yards to move the ball to Medford’s doorstep, but it would have to wait since the game had hit the end of the frst quarter.

The Golden Tornados did not waste any time at the start of the second quarter with Exilhomme rushing into the endzone from three yards out and sophomore quarterback Aiden Brett fnding Paulding on the two-point conversion to give Malden a commanding 22-0 lead.

The next six minutes became a heavy defensive battle after Fils and Lange had back-to-back TFLs to force the Mustangs to, yet again, punt. This was followed by an impressive outing for the Mustang’s defense as they forced Exilhomme to work hard for his catches and rushes. Eventually, Malden fgured out their running game again with Exilhomme picking up another 10yard gain, but the ofense slowed down, leaving Malden forced to punt for the frst time in the game.

Exilhomme produced another huge play on defense after he screamed of the edge of the line to wrap up Medford’s running back for a loss of a yard, which forced a Medford 3-and-out with another punt on 4th down.

Despite the difculties on offense, the Mustangs proved again that their defense would try and keep them in this game after Christian Jordan hit Exilhomme for a loss of fve yards, but Brett was able to keep the Golden Tornados whirling with a huge 30-yard completion to Paulding on 3rd down. Medford was able to respond by locking down Malden’s receivers to force back-to-back incompletions and with that came the end of the second quarter and the frst half with Malden leading 22-0.

Medford would come fring out of the gates after copying Malden with their own kick return touchdown to open the second half and topped it of with a successful PAT to cut the lead to 22-7 Malden. They then tried to catch Malden of guard with a harder-to-handle squib kick, but the ball was accidentally sent out of bounds at the 50-yard line, which is where Malden would start with the ball.

In an attempt to keep the drive alive after Medford’s defense had been all over Malden, Brett would throw out a pass to Paulding to extend their possession on fourth down. Back-to-back penalties would limit Malden by starting on a 1st and 17. Despite Exilhomme performing an amazing move to make his way around a Medford defensive back, Malden could not convert on fourth down.

The diference between the frst and second halves for Medford’s ofense would continue to be set as they could not be slowed down by Malden’s defense even on a 3rd and

9 or a 4th and 1. With their sights set on the endzone, Medford tried to run an end-around pass to catch Malden of guard, but they lost control of the ball after being tackled