After years of going without a conference affiliation, all but a handful of the athletic teams of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school finally found a home this week when the Eastern Athletic Conference voted unanimously to accept the Vineyard into its ranks.
The principals and athletic directors of the Eastern Athletic Conference voted without dissent on Wednesday to accept the Vineyard as the newest member of the four-school athletic conference. The vote took place at the conference’s regular meeting held at Somerset High School.
Although the matchup between the Vineyard football team and visiting Cape Cod Tech team last Friday under the lights at the regional high school was billed as the most important game of the season, in the end it wasn’t even close.
The Vineyarders scored early and often against their conference rival, and won easily 35-8, in the process taking one step closer to punching their ticket to the playoffs.
While other Islanders are out trick-or-treating or putting finishing touches on their costumes, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School varsity football team will be spending Halloween on the field under the lights tonight when they play Cape Cod Tech at home in what is easily their most important game so far this season.
In what is fast becoming a recurring theme of the season, senior quarterback Mike McCarthy on Friday again led the Vineyard football team past Holbrook/Avon 28-14 in a non-league match on the road.
McCarthy scored three touchdowns on the ground to help improve the Vineyarders to 3-1 on the season.
For coach Donald Herman the win was a mixed bag. While he lauded some individual players on offense like McCarthy, he said the defense did not play to its full potential.
A plan to allow the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school to join the Eastern Athletic Conference — a sports league predominantly made up of parochial schools from the South Shore — has been greeted enthusiastically by many coaches, school officials, students and parents.
In a game that was decided by the end of the first half, the Vineyard football team dominated Bishop Connolly 43-0 in their home opener on Friday to gain an early share of the division lead in the Mayflower League large.
For coach Donald Herman the rout was the perfect antidote to the bitter pill of last week’s 23-21 loss to Carver, a game in which the Vineyarders took a lead with less than two minutes to play, only to give it back in the closing seconds on a Carver touchdown and two-point conversion.