Somerville High School football was shut out in last week's loss to Falmouth.

By Mike Rubin
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Despite a stingy defensive effort, Somerville fell inches short of a game tying touchdown Saturday in the final seconds of a loss to Falmouth.
Dillon Mansfield’s 60-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Baptiste midway through the third quarter proved to be the difference as Falmouth handed the Highlanders a heartbreaking 7-0 defeat of Somerville in Saturday’s non-league match-up at Dilboy Field. With the loss, the Highlanders stand at 1-1 overall.
“We played well on defense, and we were so close to putting the ball in the end zone, but we just came up a bit short,” said linebacker Eddie Dias. “We played one of our best defensive games in the season, and we thought we were going to come away with the win, but it’s tough when a victory is so close and you come out short.”
Offensively, quarterback Rob Pratt and the Highlander offense struggled, mustering less than 200 yards on total offense throughout the entire contest.
After both teams failed to start any quality scoring drives in the first half, the Clippers emerged with a huge play in the third.
Off a pass downfield from Mansfield, Baptiste dodged through a few Highlander defenders and skirted down the sidelines and into the end zone for a 6-0 lead. Following the subsequent successful extra point attempt, the Clippers held a slim 7-0 lead.
With less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, a 50-yard punt pinned the Highlanders at their own 1-yard line. Led by a series of plays by Pratt and running back Josh Scarry, the Highlanders slowly engineered a scoring drive that paved a way for a first and goal situation inside the Clipper 10. Following a sequence of running plays, the Highlanders still failed to find the end zone and were faced with a fourth and goal from the Clipper 2, before being stopped just inches shy of the goal line in the final seconds.
“It’s real tough,” said Dias. “We had the momentum going, and they came through with a few key stops. We were only a couple of yards away from tying the game or winning it.”
Defensively, the Highlanders were led by Josh Scarry, Stanley George along with McKelin Delpe, Chris Taylor and Dias, who despite the loss, held the Clippers to just 110 total yards on offense. The Highlanders return to the field on Friday night when they’ll host Catholic Conference powerhouse Malden Catholic at Dilboy Field.