Will Wood leads Xaverian football to third straight Super Bowl title
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FOXBOROUGH ― Will Wood tucked the ball to his chest after faking a handoff on fourth down.
The Division 1 Super Bowl hung in the balance after St. John’s Prep cut a 20-point halftime deficit to just six in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. The top-seeded Eagles needed a stop for a chance to complete the comeback. Every St. John’s Prep eye focused on tailback Rocco Sestito as he approached the line of scrimmage.
Wood took off toward the sideline, sprinting out of bounds past the first down marker to seal Xaverian’s third straight state title 41-35. The Hawks call the play “Nebraska.”
Wood said he wanted the ball in his hands.
“Coach said, ‘Are you going to get this?'” Wood said. “I said, ‘I’m going to get it.'”
Xaverian had no reason to doubt. Wood torched the Prep’s defense with his arm all night, throwing for 345 yards and five touchdowns on just 16 attempts. The five touchdowns tied a Super Bowl record from 2002 (Swampscott’s Kyle Beatrice against North Attleboro). His 345 yards were the third-most in championship history.
“He makes those Superman-type plays all the time,” Xaverian senior Dominic Funke said.
Wood never resembled Clark Kent. He opened the scoring with a 65-yard touchdown over the top to Christian McIntyre. The two connected again for a 62-yard pass five minutes later. McIntyre finished with six catches for 181 yards and two touchdowns.
“A lot of it has to do with the guys around me,” said Wood, who has offers from Stanford, Wake Forest and Syracuse, among others. “Christian and Dave, the two best receivers in the state, no doubt in my mind. Our protection played a helluva game. Coach (James) Carven, my offensive coordinator put us in some great spots. All I had to do was put it in their hands.”
Often well downfield. He connected with Dave Chiavegato, a UMass commit, five times for 142 yards and three touchdowns. The first covered 14 yards in the first quarter. Wood hit him for a 30-yard touchdown with 2:18 left in the third quarter, and the pair connected for a 40-yard touchdown with 10:18 remaining that cemented the final margin.
“Will’s an awesome guy. He’s a better person than a football player,” Chiavegato said. “He has his offers for a reason; he’s a great talent. I think he’s going to be special.”
He matched up with St. John’s Prep five-star quarterback Chris Vargas, who played for the first time since the opening round against Framingham. Xaverian intercepted his first pass attempt, but Vargas finished with 217 yards and three touchdowns against two interceptions. He threw an 11-yard tunnel screen to Ethan Stefanovich to cut the deficit to 41-35 with 4:54 left.
It capped a run of 14 unanswered points by the Eagles to get back in range.
But Wood never let them get the ball back. He delivered with his legs and captured a second Super Bowl victory.
“I felt like I had more confidence, I have more experience,” Wood said. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world. This is a team that never flinched and kept swinging.”
Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Will Wood ties Super Bowl record in leading Xaverian football 3-peat
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