NORWELL — The rain kept coming and so did the East Bridgewater defense.
On a rainy night, the Vikings’ defense forced three turnovers and sophomore quarterback Liam LeVangie scored three touchdowns en route to a 21-7 win in Norwell.
The win gave the Vikings (6-1) the South Shore League Sullivan Division title and the top seed in the Division 3A South playoffs.
Norwell and the rain couldn’t stop the Vikings from taking their opening possession 69 yards on seven plays, capped by LeVangie’s 13-yard touchdown scamper.
“The first drive was big for us, it gave us a lot of confidence,’’ East Bridgewater coach Shawn Tarpey said.
“I think getting up on them allowed our defense to make some plays.
“All year they’ve gotten up on people and grinded them down, so scoring first was big for us.’’
From there the Vikings’ defense took over, bottling up the Norwell Wing-T offense and sacking sophomore Cal Smith three times.
Still leading, 7-0, midway through the second quarter, the Vikings punted to Norwell.
The ball took one bounce in front of the Clippers’ return man and slipped off his hands and rolled to the 17-yard line, where senior cornerback Bret Peloquin recovered it for East Bridgewater.
The experienced Vikings, who were the runner-ups in last year’s Division 5 Super Bowl, knew how to capitalize.
Three plays later, LeVangie found the end zone again, this time from 6 yards, and the lead was 14-0.
Coming out of halftime, Norwell needed to get going but it was more of the same from the Vikings’ defense.
On the fourth play of the half, Smith’s handoff to junior fullback Bryce Griffin was blown up, the ball was knocked loose, and East Bridgewater recovered.
Five plays later, LeVangie found senior wide receiver Greg Plunkett streaking down the middle for the 39-yard score and the Vikings had put the game out of reach.
“They made a couple of mistakes that is uncharacteristic of them and we capitalized on them,’’ Tarpey said.
“Some turnovers went in our favor and in a big game like this it’s mistakes and turnovers and we made less than they did.’’
Josh Schrock can be reached at josh.schrock@globe.com.
