MATTAPOISETT - As a freezing mist choked the Wareham High School team bus on the way home from Mattapoisett Friday night, emotion choked the players inside. There was mostly silence, punctuated by an occasional player taking blame for what had just transpired.
    Some loses are painful. Some are just devastating.
    At Old Rochester Regional’s David Hagen Field, the Wareham High varsity football team watched a 22-7 halftime lead slip away under a flurry of mistakes. The ORR Bulldogs capitalized on just about every one of them to capture the Cranberry Cup with a stunning 23-22 victory.
    ORR scored nine points in the final 2:35, the final dagger a 21-yard field goal by Zach Choquette with 12 seconds remaining. The Vikings fell to their knees, looking for an escape hatch somewhere in the turf, one that would bring the nightmare to an end.
    All they could do was look up at the wild celebration at midfield by the Bulldogs.
    "We made mistakes and ORR continued to play well and didn’t make any mistakes," said Wareham coach Dan Nault. "They made plays and we didn’t, and they won."
    It had been five years since the Bulldogs beat Wareham. Both squads entered the game with matching 5-1 records in the South Coast Conference. Now Wareham has only pride left when the Vikings face Bourne on Thanksgiving. ORR can actually win the conference if they upset undefeated Apponequet on Thanksgiving.
    "I couldn’t be more proud of these guys right now, all of them," said ORR coach Henry Quinlan. "We still have Thanksgiving, but I’m only thinking about what we just pulled off tonight."
    Wareham had fallen behind early, 7-0, on a 45-yard Bryan Teefy to Travis Lowery strike. Pat Murphy put Wareham on top with a 34-yard touchdown catch of his own less than two minutes later. In the second quarter Murphy put his cleats into overdrive on a 78-yard touchdown run.
    "Have you caught your breath yet?" Nault asked when the junior sensation finally returned to the sideline.
    When E.J. Bennett hauled in a 53-yard score from quarterback Jon Lydon (a spectacular one-hand grab) with less than a minute into the half, it looked like the Vikings would ease into their third straight blow-out victory.
    But somebody forgot to tell the Bulldogs to roll over and play dead. Lowery, who missed nearly three full games with a separated shoulder, scored his 19th touchdown on the season (one shy of the school record) on a 50-yard burst in the third quarter.
    After the ORR defense held Wareham in check, Richie Meunier took a punt return near the Vikings sideline and just kept going. His 48-yard score cut the Wareham lead to 22-20 with 2:35 remaining on the clock.
    But the Vikings gave the ball right back by mishandling an on-side kick. Teefy found Choquette on a 33-yard pass to quickly move the Bulldogs inside the Wareham red zone.
    With first-and-goal on the Wareham 8, Quinlan wanted six instead of three, and called three straight runs for Lowery (28 carries, 128 yards on the night). But Wareham’s defense tightened, forcing a 21-yard field goal attempt with 12 seconds left.
    "Right before the kick, I just tried to keep my distance away from rest of the team and just tried to keep my focus," said a wide-eyed Choquette. "Immediately after, I was just ecstatic. I’ve never done anything close to having a game-winner. I still can’t believe we pulled it off. I’m at such a loss for words right now."
    So were the Vikings.
    "This is always a high-stakes emotional game," Nault said. "It’s a game our kids take personally, because it’s ORR. I’m proud of our guys because we left everything we had on the field."
    After the game Nault told his team that just because you work hard and put your heart and soul into something, there are never any guarantees.
    "About seven things had to go right for ORR to win this game," Nault said. "And all seven things did go right for them."
    The turning point was clearly the punt return followed by ORR’s successful on-side kick.
    "The ball was wet, but it was wet for ORR too," Nault said, refusing to offer any excuses.
    "Losing always hurts, but for a young team like we have, they got a taste of what it feels like to lose a game like this. They didn’t like it. I think that might carry over to next season."