By Jim O'Sullivan

Their business now lies south, in Florida, where the Dorchester Eagles will try to get square with fate, and take home the championship hardware that has slipped past them two straight years. Dorchester's 40-8 trouncing of Bridgeton, CT on Friday in Nashua, NH brought them the New England regional crown and a trip to Orlando to play the Oak Grove Red Hawks next Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 3 p.m. in the national semifinals.

With an overtime loss in the Super Bowl last year and a semifinal loss in 2001, the Pop Warner B team is stacked with 11- and 12-year-olds whose determination belies their youth, and whose gridiron prowess has left league officials begging with their coaches to have mercy on hapless opponents.

"It's the type of team where you don't know they're pumped until they get on the field and start hitting," said coach Tony Hurston, the team's offensive guru.

Indeed, at a Tuesday night practice in the upstairs gym of the Grover Cleveland Middle School in Fields Corner, the squad goes through full-pads drills in a clipped, efficient manner. Coaches and parents look on, and seem more nervous than the guys wearing helmets.

Earlier, the Eagles coaching staff had reviewed a tape of the Oak Grove Red Hawks, a northern California team with a tradition of success in Orlando, home to the Pop Warner Super Bowl. Dorchester coaches said the Red Hawks are led by two speedsters, but that the team from Boston, one of three Massachusetts teams of any age group bound for Florida, exhibits more quickness across the board.

Hurston said Tuesday that the team would install new offensive plays this week that they planned to unveil down south.

"Let's say we'll have a whole new wrinkle for America," Hurston said, chuckling.

Oak Grove boasts a national champion and two national runners-up in the last two postseasons.

"They win it because of their speed, and we always felt we could beat them with our speed," said Dorchester Head Coach Terry Cousins.

And it was in ample evidence last Friday night in New Hampshire, where a 34-0 lead at halftime put Eagles coaches in the happy but uncomfortable position of bargaining with Pop Warner officials pleading for the slaughter rule, according to Cousins. Cousins said Dorchester removed its starters at the break, but put them back in when Bridgeton scored at the beginning of the first half.

Cousins credited overall solid team play, highlighting the play of his "Four Horsemen" - backfield speedsters Nick Brown, Anthony Smalls, Da'Vaughn Goss, and Shaquan Jackson - as well as tight end Niall Murphy.

"Niall is the brains of the offense," Cousins said of Murphy, who also starts at outside linebacker and relays the signals from the sidelines to quarterback Jackson. "He's sort of the general on the field."

Murphy's father, an Irish immigrant, said American football wins his son's heart over Irish football - soccer - any day.

"He loves football," the elder Murphy said. "He is absolutely cracked on football."

There is plenty of football awaiting Murphy and his brothers in pads in warmer climates. To get there, the program still needs to raise about $15,000, according to Joseph Kirnon, its treasurer and the father of two players. Seeking community or corporate donations, Kirnon said the program travels with a party of more than 40, including players, cheerleaders, coaches, chaperones, and boardmembers. Kirnon requested that anyone interested in donating to the program contact him at 617-201-3460.

Back-to-back state championships. Back-to-back regional championships. Middle school and junior high kids getting ready to head south for the biggest games of their lives to date. And, if they win, it's not far to Disney World.

"This is gonna be a classic match-up here," Cousins said. "This is gonna be one for the ages."

Lone Dot Squad Alive for Regionals By Jim O'Sullivan

(Nov. 28)- In olden times, they were Famine, Plague, Pestilence, and war. In the Roaring Twenties, under the pen of sportswriter Grantland Rice, they were Notre Dame's Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden. On the Dorchester Eagles, their names are Smalls, Brown, Jackson, and Carr. They are the Four Horsemen, and last Sunday they were a revelation to a hapless Malden squad, galloping off with a 40-0 win and into the New England finals.

The Dorchester Pop Warner Midget B team, 11 and 12 year olds, shut out Malden in Chelmsford, capturing its third consecutive state crown, and setting up Friday's 5 p.m. regional title game against Bridgeport, CT, at Stellos Stadium in Nashua, NH. The victor in the Nov. 28 north-on-Route 3 game will head south to Orlando, Florida, to compete in the Final Four, and perhaps the national championship.

Saturday left the B squad as the sole surviving team from the Dorchester delegation, with the A team having lost on Nov. 16 to North Attleboro, and the D team falling Sunday to Wilmington, 13-12.

The Four Horsemen, so labeled by Coach Terry Cousins, dominated Malden's Cyclones. Cousins said the threat of Shaquan Jackson's strong arm spreads opposing defensive schemes, allowing backfield mates Anthony Smalls, Nick Brown, and DeVaughn Carr to roll up the yardage.

And Cousins was quick to credit the offensive line, calling them "unbelievable. They really block, man."

Cousins said words were exchanged between the Dorchester and Malden coaching staffs before the game, but that the coaches kept the players out of the verbal fray and focused on the game.

"We just went out and did what we had to do," Cousins said. "Now, we want the big one. We need that big one. If we get that big one, we'll be all right." The Eagles are bidding for their third straight berth in the Super Bowl in Orlando, and to avenge two straight overtime losses.

The nine and 10 year olds didn't fare as well in part, Coach Russell Coleman said, because the pressure of a state championship game upset their rhythm. "They were sort of stiff all day," Coleman said.

The B team fell behind early when Wilmington scored on the first play from scrimmage, but rallied to pull within 7-6 at the half. Dorchester matched the quick start in the second half, using their own first play from scrimmage to seize a 12-7 lead. After Wilmington edged ahead, a key fumble inside four minutes cost the Eagles a chance to surge into the regionals

"The kids as a whole came together as a unit [during the season]," Coleman said, reaching for the silver lining. "They weren't only a football team; I think they consider themselves to be brothers."