By TIM O’SULLIVAN
Monitor staff

BOW – After rolling through the first three games without giving up a point, the Bow football team’s winning streak came to a screeching halt two weeks ago in Plymouth. The Falcons had two weeks to stew in that defeat before finally taking the field again on Saturday for Homecoming against Kennett.

And there was no doubt Bow was more than ready to erase those two-week old memories.

“Honestly, I felt like we came out and were flying around too much,” Bow senior captain Jack Corriveau said.

That extra energy led to a sloppy first half, but the Falcons (4-1) cleaned things up in the second half on their way to a 29-19 win against a Kennett team that’s better than its 2-3 record.

“The coaches really harped on us that we needed to prove ourselves this week, and I felt like as a team we did that,” Corriveau said. “I’m happy with the win and I’m happy with the team.”

And the team is happy with Corriveau, who ran for 192 yards and all four Bow touchdowns on 25 carries. The Falcons have a tradition of using multiple running backs, but it looks like Corriveau might have separated himself from the pack.

“He certainly came out of the stable and looked like a world beater today,” Bow Coach Paul Cohen said of Corriveau, “and that’s great to see.”

Kennett’s three losses have come against Plymouth, St. Thomas and Bow, teams with a combined 15-2 record. And the Eagles showed early on Saturday they were going to put up a fight, forcing Bow into a three-and-out on its first possession and then scoring first when they took advantage of a short field with a 30-yard drive and a 26-yard field goal from Sam Pollard for a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

Bow sophomore Thomas Rolla returned the ensuing kickoff 39 yards to the Kennett 46, and four plays later Ben Kimball (11 carries, 74 yards) was rumbling toward the Kennett end zone. Before he could get there, Kimball was tackled at the 10 and stripped of the ball, but it popped into the hands of Corriveau, who took it the rest of the way for a 7-3 Falcons lead with 4:25 left in the first quarter.

“I was lead blocker on that play and I just saw that the ball popped out and thought, ‘You got to pick it up and take it in the end zone,’ ” Corriveau said. “It was pretty much just instinctive.”

Kennett countered with a 14-play drive that pushed the ball to the Bow 3, but the Falcons held there and the Eagles had to settle for a 20-yard field goal from Pollard to make it 7-6 early in the second quarter.

Bow immediately answered with a four-play drive. The quick march ended with a rugged 10-yard touchdown run from Corriveau, who was helped by a devastating block from Mark Borak, to make it 14-6 with 8:49 left in the second quarter.

The Falcons took that lead to halftime and then extended it with a monstrous 15-play, 80-yard drive that chewed up 7:32 of the third quarter. Corriveau ran the ball on eight of those 15 plays, the last a 1-yard touchdown dive in the last minute of the third quarter to increase the lead to 22-6.

The game felt almost iced, but the Eagles came back with a 70-yard drive that took only 3:05 and made the score 22-12 after Brett Miller (13-for-22, 158 yards, two touchdowns) hit Devon Ouellette (four catches, 65 yards) with a 1-yard touchdown pass.

“When it really came down to it, (Kennett) never quit, they kept playing, and that forced us to up our game a little bit, which is what we were hoping for at this juncture of the season, without a doubt,” Cohen said.

The Eagles did, however, give up too soon on the next play from scrimmage. Corriveau was spun to the ground around his own 40, but his knee never touched and the whistle never blew. The Kennett defense paused for a split second, which was all the time Corriveau needed to rip off a 63-yard touchdown run.

“If I don’t hear a whistle, I just keep running,” said Corriveau, who was as eager to credit the big boys up front as he was to fight for extra yards. “All game the line blocked well so, I’ve got to give a shout-out to the line.”

The Eagles had an answer ready, but after a long completion from Miller to Pollard at the Bow 15, Rolla forced a fumble and Steven Guerrette recovered it for the Falcons. Rolla finished the day with two passes defended and that forced fumble, while Jack Tellifson had three tackles for a loss (including two sacks) for the Bow defense, which also got two tackles for a loss from Seamus O’Reilly and one each from Nolan Filteau, Andrew Berube, Justin Porath and Borak.

“Defensively they were flying to the ball more consistently, there was a good pass rush and some great plays in the secondary,” Cohen said.

Kennett scored again with 2:39 left on the clock when Miller hit Pollard with a 5-yard touchdown pass. The Eagles attempted an onside kick after the score, but Bow’s Jack Wixson recovered and the Falcons ran out the clock from there.

“I told them to make this Homecoming memorable,” Cohen said, “and they certainly did that.”