Bonus thoughts from a Super Bowl Saturday.

Here, at long last, are the final "bonus thoughts' from a high school football game from this year. We'll also add some thoughts about the state of the high school playoffs after we get through with the Feehan-related material.


** So, of the four local teams that have played in high school Super Bowls at Gillette Stadium, Bishop Feehan is the only school to have come back a winner -- and the Shamrocks have done it twice, in two different divisions.

They own the place.

Of course, Feehan's success will probably generate another round of comments under the stories written today by Peter Gobis and myself, about how Feehan "recruits" and "cheats" and whatever other gripes some individuals may have with a fellow who coached there almost a decade ago.

I'm getting sick of the nonsense. Feehan has been in the area's midst since the late 1960s and hasn't been that much more successful than any of our local public schools in most of its sports. Its current success in the woe-begone Eastern Athletic Conference could have been tempered somewhat if some of the naysayers in official positions had just swallowed their pride and let Feehan join the Hockomock League, so the kids Feehan allegedly "steals" would be able to play against other schools of similar size and with the added bonus of regional familiarity.

I've said it before: "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." I get the feeling, however, that a lot of people would have to eat crow over how good a neighbor Feehan can be. And the one thing they can't stand more than anything else is the thought that they might be proven wrong.

** In a game with 21 possessions (12 for Marblehead, nine for Feehan), it goes without saying that the teams would have a lot of third-down and fourth-down conversion attempts.

And they didn't do well.

Marblehead converted only three of 14 third-down attempts in the game (.214) while cashing in on two of three fourth-down tries.

Feehan, meanwhile, was 3-for-10 on third downs and 0-2 on fourth down.

The big difference and why Feehan won the game, 12-6?

Feehan did not convert a third-down try until the last possession, going 0-7 before converting three on the final series -- an 11-play, 71-yard march leading to Zack Schwieger's 4-yard TD run with 13 seconds left to win the game.

I guess if you're going to pick a time in which to start doing the right thing, the last possession in a close game is a pretty good time to do it.

** It was good to hear that Tony Wood was shaking his own head over his decision to fake a 28-yard field goal and instead have Tommy Romero throw into what became triple coverage of Schwieger on a drive that ended at the Marblehead 12 with 29 seconds left in the third quarter.

At least it wasn't fourth-and-2 at his own 28. But given that it was Feehan's second red zone failure in a taut contest in which one failed possession can turn the tide of an entire game, I'd have been more inclined to try for the easier points and give up the eight yards of starting the next Marblehead possession at the 20 if Stan Pacuk missed.

But then again, I don't coach and would never claim to be able to.

** Every high school Super Bowl usually has a kid who comes out of nowhere to make an impact upon the game. This year, the obvious choice was sophomore Schwieger (23 carries, 132 yards), but another good choice would be senior receiver/defensive end Max Marchione, who was in on every big tackle I can remember.

Someone will probably come up with legit tackling stats at some point. I can't do that in the press box when I'm charting every offensive play -- and this game almost moved too fast for me, having been put into hurry-up mode by the MIAA -- but I often note standout plays, and I have six little "16s" circled (that's Max's number) on defensive plays. I'm sure there were more than that, but other writers noticed how active he was around the ball as well. His three catches for 30 yards also helped a lot, including two consecutive catches on the final possession.

** I went over my stat sheet three or four times, and the result was the same -- NO accepted penalties for either team. I can't remember that ever happening at a game I've covered in the past, although it probably has. I know there were three penalties called in the first half and none were accepted. Stunning.

** Once again, the public address announcing was handled by a familiar voice, that of George Usevich, the principal of Norwood High School, who used to be the PA voice of the Patriots at the old stadium. Nice to hear you again, George.

** The MIAA announced a cumulative crowd of 22,882 for the six games at Gillette, which I believe to be the smallest total of the three years the games have been played there. By the way, the agreement between the Kraft family and the MIAA expired with the final gun of the game between Gloucester and Bridgewater-Raynham.

Obviously, bad weather and the comfort of having the games on live TV and FM radio kept a lot of people at home. Indeed, I suspect these games drew even fewer people in-house than the games held in the old Foxboro Stadium two decades ago. If I had the choice of sitting in a snowstorm or watching the game in my warm and toasty house, I think I'd gleefully choose the latter and not feel guilty about it.

The Krafts shoot themselves in the foot somewhat by making the games available to TV, but I suspect it's a means of recovering the investment of offering the stadium to the MIAA rent-free for a day. As in the past, all of the commercials (except for the in-house shilling for Patriot Place) were for companies that are already "official partners" of the Patriots, and probably are part of the cost of doing business with the Krafts. It's the same reason why WEEI is forced to broadcast Revolution games -- no one cares about listening to soccer on the radio, but to have the "Patriots Monday" and other such packages that include guaranteed and exclusive player interviews, the Revolution broadcasts are a mandatory part of the deal.

The Krafts are under a lot of pressure to include the other regions of the state in the Gillette bowls, which is helping to fuel the midguided push for a statewide playoff plan. One way or another, I suspect the Krafts and the MIAA will have a lot of contentious issues to resolve before the agreement to play title games at Gillette is renewed.

** I also hope the MIAA and its member schools were paying attention to the steady snowfall for the last three games played at the stadium on Saturday. That's real Dec. 5 weather -- not the quirk of nature that enveloped the area in 70-degree warmth as the players and coaches strolled the field on the previous Thursday.

That's why I often wonder exactly Plymouth North coach Bill Burkhead is thinking each time he comes up with one of these new playoff plans of his. One of those, which was thankfully shot down a year ago, would have extended the season another week into winter. This is Massachusetts, where it can snow in October (and did this year), not Florida -- and the expanded-playoff zealots should realize that.

** The TV play-by-play was droning on in the background inside the press box (usually it's turned down), and as a result, there were frequent outbursts of laughter over some of the over-the-top calls by play-by-play announcer Gary Tanguay, who was clearly trying to stoke up the excitement to make up for the fact that there was next to no crowd noise from those 22,882 fans disguised as empty seats.

But I have to give Tanguay and his broadcast partner, former Pats' backup QB Scott Zolak, credit for a couple of aspects of their performance Saturday.

First, it's next-to-impossible to please everyone when you're calling six games in a row, one after another, with unfamiliar names and limited prep time. Aside from some obvious mispronunciations and a few malaprops here and there, I thought they did a remarkable job from what I heard.

What's more, it must have been excrutiating for them to have to broadcast the last two games in a blinding snowfall, with no way to see the snow-covered yard markers and hashmarks on the field. I know it would have been challenging enough as a writer to compile statistics out of guesswork, so my hat's off to Tanger and Zo for making the best of a bad situation. Believe me, I feel very fortunate to have had to cover just one game, and at a time when I could still see the entire field.

** And that's it for football (although I'll probably have more than my share of thoughts about the new
playoff proposal in upcoming weeks). On to basketball.