| Brighton | 24 |
| Madison Park | 12 |
Brighton coach Randolph Abraham delivered an animated speech to his players prior to opening kickoff.
"This is our Super Bowl. This is it," he shouted. "I want this one bad. Do you want it?"
The players erupted in a unanimous response. "Yes," they answered.
The Bengals (7-0, 5-0) were able to clinch their second straight Boston North division with a 24-12 victory over Madison Park (4-3, 3-2) on Friday night.
Dexter Andrews led the way for Brighton, rushing for 134 yards on 18 carries and posting two touchdowns.
The senior running back took a 21-yard carry into the end zone for the game's first score as time expired in the 1st quarter.
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Madison Park answered, however.
Quarterback Paul Ghazali shook off several members of the Brighton defense and found Kevin Blair for a 20-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-16 desperation play to knot the game, 6-6.
After the Bengals cashed in on their next drive with a 31-yard touchdown run by quarterback True Bray, Blair took the ensuing kickoff 75 yards to the house, and the teams were knotted at the half, 12-12.
"[I told them] just remember what we're playing for," said Abraham. "We're playing for the Boston North championship, the second one that we've been able to capture in two years. Focus a little bit, let's have a good time, but let's still take care of business."
And they did.
With the Cardinals set to receive the second-half kickoff, Brighton managed to recover a fumble. The Bengals proceeded to drive 60 yards for the score, capped by a 1-yard run from Andrews, who ends the regular season with 1,151 rushing yards.
Madison struggled to regain form after the momentum shift, and their next drive ended with a sack as the third period came to a close.
Brighton opened the fourth quarter with another long drive, this time ending with an 8-yard pass from Bray to freshman William Jean to put the Bengals up, 24-12 and cap an undefeated regular season, their first since 2007, when Brighton went 12-0 and won the Division 5 Super Bowl.
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"It feels amazing. We had fun tonight," said Abraham. "We told the kids let's just have a good time, let's just enjoy ourselves. We played a lot of young kids today. We had a good time."
The pairings for the MIAA tournament will be announced Sunday, and the Bengals feel they've put themselves in a better position than last year, when they were routed in the first round by Manchester Essex.
"I think we're able to run the football well, and that's the difference between what we were able to accomplish last year,'' said Abraham. "We can run the ball. Our offensive line is doing an excellent run of [creating] the holes."