After 30 years, these players are the best of the best
CENTER
KEVIN DAKIN (BISHOP STANG)
At 6-5, 255 pounds, the Spartan center towered over his teammates as well as most of the opposition. And when he wasn't towering over opposing linemen he was walking on them, compliments of a devastating block.
In his senior year -- the '88 season -- Dakin's blocking made people aware of quarterback Sean Brady, who took advantage of his teammate's blocking ability to rush to a single-season school record 15 touchdowns as Stang finished the season at 8-2.
Following the year, Dakin accepted a scholarship to Clemson University.
GUARD
JOHN GONET (BISHOP STANG)
Because of his size and strength, he normally filled the tackle holes on both sides of the ball during his three varsity seasons at Bishop Stang. But, as good as he was in that role, several coaches thought his best position was offensive guard which is where I've placed the then 6-4, 225-pounder.
Gonet was with the Stang varsity from 1975-77 and played the line position as well as anyone I've seen in my 30 years of walking the sidelines. He was an excellent pass blocker and he could get downfield and block as well as anyone. But Gonet was more than good. He also was durable, and in a career that expanded 30 varsity contests he never missed a game.
He played on average teams, teams that finished 5-5 twice and 6-4 but Gonet was considered well above average by the many college scouts recruiting him. Eventually, he chose Boston College where he played offensive guard and center under coaches Ed Chlebeck and Jack Bicknell.
GUARD
RON OLIVER (WAREHAM)
There was just something about this guy that caught my attention. He probably wasn't any better than teammates Bubba Pina or Ben Gomes, but together, the trio formed what may be the best offensive line I've had the pleasure of seeing. They played together in the early 1970s and were together when Wareham won the Southeastern Massachusetts Conference, Division 3 championship in '73.
Oliver played offensive guard and linebacker and he was as quick as they come. Standing just about 6-0 and probably weighing just under 200 pounds, he got off the ball as quick as anyone. And when Oliver got a step on a defensive lineman a massive hole was in the making. There may have been bigger and stronger guards but none has made a bigger impression on me than No. 51 in the Wareham forward wall.
TACKLE
STEVE TURNER (DARTMOUTH)
At 6-4, 220 pounds, Turner was a physical presence in a much smaller Dartmouth line. He also is arguably the best lineman in school history. Defenders couldn't overpower him and when Turner led a running back downfield, it usually resulted in a Dartmouth touchdown.
He was good enough to earn All-League honors in the Capeway Conference in back-to-back seasons and, in his senior year, he helped power the Indians to a conference co-championship in 1970, earning Honorable Mention honors on the Sunkist All-America High School team in the process.
Turner played four seasons at Boston College and was awarded the prestigious Scanlon Award as the team's Outstanding Lineman in his senior year. Turner earned a tryout with the Patriots in 1975 and, although he failed to make the team, he did play professionally in the Canadian Football League.
TACKLE
MARK SULLIVAN (NEW BEDFORD)
He was the most wanted football player of his era, this 6-4, 230-pound package of speed, power and strength. In 1974 Sullivan was being hailed as the finest lineman in the Southeastern Massachusetts Conference and being touted, in some parts, as the best potential college prospect in the East. And Sullivan didn't disappoint.
How good was this guy?
Good enough to earn a scholarship to Ohio State, where he played three seasons with the Buckeyes. And good enough to earn a professional tryout with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League. Cut by the Falcons on the final cut-down date, he never did play professionally, but he easily goes down as the most dominating lineman I've ever had the pleasure of covering.
TIGHT END
BRENDAN MURPHY (MIDDLEBORO)
What hands!
The best of any 'big' receiver I've ever covered or seen on a high school level.
He was a gangly kid, but at 6-3, 175-pounds he had the ability to fend off blockers with his speed and quickness which put him in position to out-leap any defender one-on-one. Because of a seemingly never-ending stable of outstanding running backs, Middleboro didn't pass much back in the late 1970s but when it did, Murphy was the primary target during his three seasons with the varsity.
He had five touchdown receptions in each of his final two seasons, helping Middleboro reach and win Super Bowls both years.
Murphy went on to play tight end at Boston College, where he found himself on the receiving end of passes from Doug Flutie.
WIDE RECEIVER
JEFF CORREIA (NEW BEDFORD)
They called him FuFu, but the nickname could just as well have been Boo Hoo as far as opposing defensive backs were concerned. In his four years with the New Bedford varsity, he certainly left enough of them crying for help.
Correia caught 21 touchdown passes during his high school career, most of them of the acrobatic variety.
There wasn't a defensive back who could stop the 6-0 wide-receiver.
He could beat defenders on fly patterns down the sidelines and wasn't afraid to take a beating while darting over the middle. Soft hands, quick feet, big heart. Correia had the entire package and made covering New Bedford High football in the early '90s fun.
QUARTERBACK
MARK CORDEIRO (DARTMOUTH)
If you're thinking in terms of the prototypical dropback quarterback who burned enemy secondaries with pin-point passes, Cordeiro will never come to mind. He probably could have fit that mold, but at Dartmouth, Cordeiro was merely a piece to a puzzle. A very important piece that puzzled opposing defenses for two seasons.
The wishbone was in vogue when Cordeiro stepped under center for the first time in the opening game of the 1983 season. At the time, he was a relative unknown trying to replace Matt Quinn, who just the season before had led the Indians to a 9-1 record and into the Super Bowl.
In his very first start, Cordeiro engineered three long scoring drives, each resulting in touchdowns in a 27-0 rout of GNB Regional Voc-Tech. He kicked three extra points that Friday night, launching a string of 22 consecutive games in which he managed to break into the scoring column.
In two years with Cordeiro as the starting quarterback, Dartmouth never lost a game.
The Indians went 10-0-0 through both regular seasons and Cordeiro capped his brilliant career by leading his team to a 14-0 victory over Foxboro in the Division 3 Super Bowl.
Veteran coach Carlin Lynch called Cordeiro "without question, the finest quarterback I have coached in my 29 years on the job." Others called Cordeiro the best athlete in Southeastern Massachusetts.
He was tough, gritty and talented.
In 20 regular-season games, Cordiero scored 14 touchdowns, passed for 7 more, accounted for 59 extra points and kicked three field goals.
There have been several outstanding wishbone quarterbacks in the last 30 years with Bishop Stang cornering the market on most of them -- Mark Ottavinelli, the Bradys (Sean and Chris) and Tommy Osuch, just to name a few. But no one ran the wishbone any more effectively than Mark Cordeiro.
RUNNING BACK
ADAM SILVA (CASE)
Simply put, he's the best high school back I've seen. I only wish I had seen more of him. It wasn't just the 52 touchdowns in 27 varsity games that put him on the pedestal. It was how he scored those touchdowns and thinking about how many more he could have scored that makes him special.
He scored his first touchdown in the fourth game of his sophomore season. It was a relatively short run by his standards and came in a 26-23 loss to Wareham. Silva played a supporting role to names like Henriques, Andrade, McConnell and Laberge that season -- a season that saw the Cardinals win seven of 10 games.
It was the next season when people took notice of the Comet from Swansea.
In 10 games, Silva rushed for a team-leading 17 touchdowns -- more than half coming from beyond the midfield stripe. Three times he scored as many as three touchdowns in one game, helping the Cardinals cruise to a 9-1 record.
In his senior year, Silva had the "misfortune" of playing on a superior Case team. Because of that superiority, Silva was often summoned to the sidelines before the game got too far out of hand. He scored a school-record 29 touchdowns that season, including 6 in a lop-sided victory over Bourne. So lopsided, in fact, that Silva was pulled from the game at halftime.
He had a lot of those experiences, but still managed to score five touchdowns in three quarters of a 41-6 rout of Voc-Tech and three touchdowns in five other games while finishing every one of them on the bench.
Fast? I haven't seen anyone faster. Quick? Same thing.
As a senior, Silva capped the 1989 season with a school single-season record 29 touchdowns, a school record 376 career points and 3,459 rushing yards, still another school mark. He was truly a great one.
RUNNING BACK
DAVE HARRISON, (MIDDLEBORO)
Another in a long line of outstanding running backs to come out of Middleboro, Harrison had a brilliant career capped by a dream senior season.
The 5-11, 185-pounder was as fast as any back in his era and during that senior year of 1974, he ran for 1,500 yards and 24 touchdowns, 18 of them coming from beyond 20 yards. His 8.5 yards per carry was unmatched and good enough to lead Middleboro into the Super Bowl for the first of four appearances in a 10-year span.
When he wasn't starring on offense, he was earning All-League honors as a linebacker.
During that senior year, Harrison was the most sought-after player in the area as college scouts drooled in anticipation of coaxing him into a new uniform. Harrison eventually decided on the University of Maine, where he played safety and eventually became a highly-regarded linebacker under coach Jack Bicknell, who would later move on to take over the head coaching reins at Boston College.
Harrison did everything expected of him in high school, which was a lot. He was a great running back on a very good football team that became a great one in his senior year. Were it not for Adam Silva of Case, Harrison would have earned the title of best back I've ever seen.
RUNNING BACK
JO JO GOODINE (NEW BEDFORD)
He didn't have blazing speed but, boy, was he quick. Goodine could hit the hole in the blink of an eye and with his ability to cut, he was the most exciting back of his era. Goodine's era was the early '90s and from his freshman year in '91 through his senior season in '94, New Bedford's little running back was a one-man scoring machine.
As a freshman, he played long enough to score five touchdowns, including a pair in a Thanksgiving Day victory at Durfee. He found the end zone 9 times as a sophomore before running for a single-season school record 27 touchdowns as a junior and matching that mark the following year, leading the Whalers to back-to-back appearances in the Super Bowl.
Like Adam Silva of Case, his prolific scoring years came in limited playing time as Goodine often found himself on the sidelines by halftime during a New Bedford rout. But he played long enough to find the end zone in 18 of his final 20 regular-season games, including a school-record 6 in a 55-22 rout of Xavier High of Connecticut in his junior year.
Goodine's talents attracted interest from several college scouts. He eventually chose the University of New Hampshire, where he saw limited playing time as a freshman last season.
KICKER
PAT DRISCOLL, BISHOP STANG
He was converted from a soccer player to a football kicker by his father and when he kicked the first field goal in the history of Bishop Stang freshman football, varsity coach Jim Lanagan was convinced the senior Driscoll had made the right decision.
In his three seasons with the varsity, Driscoll converted on 10 field goals and 52 extra point kicks, which continue to stand as school records. Most of those kicks came off a bare right foot, including the first one as a member of the varsity in a 24-0 victory at Bourne, six games into the 1984 season. The successful field goal was the first by a Bishop Stang kicker since Bryce Getchell lofted one through the uprights in 1980.
His longest came from just over 40 yards, which was his range of accuracy.
Driscoll's most prolific season came during his junior year when he kicked 7 field goals and 25 extra points, including the deciding one in a 14-13 victory over Dighton-Rehoboth that brought Bishop Stang the Southeastern Massachusetts Conference Division 3 championship.