Things looked bleak for Martha's Vineyard when Aaron Fox's one-yard touchdown plunge spotted Nantucket a 12-0 lead with 4:46 left. The Whalers had controlled the game from the opening drive, pounding the Vineyard with a balanced running and passing attack. Once again Nantucket attempted a two-point conversion; they were foiled by Mike Dowd's crunching hit on the goal line. The Whalers' inability to score extra points left a window for the Comeback, albeit a very small one.

At Nantucket Saturday there were two football games. One was staged on the playing field, properly, and Nantucket won convincingly, 34-0. Ultimately the only victim in that game was the playing field, and that will repair itself.

Thanksgiving feasting, means dark meat, white meat, and - this week on Martha's Vineyard - fresh Nantucket whalemeat. In the words of Coach Bob Tankard:

"How sweet it is!"

In the lobby of the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, it's time to shake the dust from the trophy case. It's time to shine, time to make room for the big one.

The trophy, all two feet and some-odd inches of it.

Early on Saturday morning, a prevailing westerly sweeps the steppe called Martha's Vineyard Airport, and the regional high school football team hustles from the terminal into a potbellied Gull Airlines plane bound for Nantucket and The Game.

For the seventh straight year, Nantucket defeated Martha's Vineyard last Saturday in the historic contest between the two Island football teams, 30 to 20.

The game was played under majestic blue skies before a crowd of 2,500 spectators. It brings the overall record between the two schools to 23-10-2, in favor of Nantucket.

Saturday was a good day for flying to Nantucket — for a change. The PBA terminal was full of anxious Vineyarders hoping for an upset in the annual clash of the Islands on the football field. It was a gallant effort but in the end the Whalers were still undefeated for the season and the Vineyard has lost another close game to them, 12 to 0.

Depending on whom you talk to, what happened on Nantucket in November of 1992 is like a pleasant dream or a recurring nightmare.

"It was my worst loss ever in 31 years," exclaims Nantucket head football coach Vito Capizzo.

"It was my biggest win," says Vineyard coach Donald Herman.

NANTUCKET - The Vineyard football team wasn't even supposed to be here, the gridiron gods tell us. They weren't supposed to be playing for the Island Cup, the Mayflower League conference title and a Super Bowl berth versus Nantucket. Heck, they were supposed to be playing for third place.

But here the Vineyard was, on a warm Saturday in Whaler country, and they ran smack into an oncoming train. Nantucket powered its way to a 23-7 win, providing a dose of reality to the Vineyarders' overachieving 7-3 season.

They came, they saw, they squished.

Using their clumsy "Squish the Grapes" battle cry, the Nantucket Whalers rumbled into Oak Bluffs Saturday and pounded the Martha's Vineyard high school football team 30-13 in a predictable, impressive triumph. The victory before 2,500 Island fans marked the third consecutive Island Cup win for the Super Bowl-bound Whalers.