DOVER — Eric Cumba found himself in an unfamiliar situation Saturday.

It was midway through the fourth quarter of a game against Kennett, and Cumba’s St. Thomas Aquinas of Dover football team had yet to deliver a knockout blow.

Last year, Cumba’s first as a head coach, the Saints went 11-0 en route to the Division V championship. Almost all of those games were decided by a large margin.

“We had to fight for four quarters because Kennett gave us everything we could handle,” Cumba said after St. Thomas posted a 12-7 victory in the Division IV opener for each team. “I’m very proud with how we fought for 48 minutes today. It’s been a long time since we still had to fight in the fourth quarter.”

The Saints, who moved up to Division IV after the 2011 season, took a 12-0 lead when Jake Geppert scored on a 16-yard run with 9:10 left in the third quarter, but Kennett had all of the momentum when fullback Nick Massa capped a 14-play, 74-yard scoring drive with an 18-yard TD run in the fourth. Caine Warren’s point-after kick made it a 12-7 game with 6:09 to play.

After forcing a St. Thomas punt, Kennett took possession on its own 8-yard line with 2:59 to play. The Eagles picked up two first downs, but the drive ended when Ryan Monette intercepted a Nick Graziano pass with 25 seconds to play.

“You get behind a team like this and you’re fighting an uphill battle,” Kennett coach Mike Holderman said. “I’m happy with the way we came back in the second half. In the second half I thought we controlled the ball. We’re just so young — we have five new starters on the offensive line — that one mistake kills us. Calling plays for second and 13 is a lot different than second and 6.

“Defensively, in the second half we got them off the field when we needed to.”

Massa, a senior, carried the ball 25 times for 165 yards.

St. Thomas handed the ball to Geppert five times, and he scored twice. His first TD, a 7-yard run, opened the scoring with three minutes left in the first half. The TD was set up when Kennett fumbled the snap from punt formation and gave the Saints possession on the Kennett 7-yard line.

Monette fumbled the ball away twice, but led the Saints in rushing with 92 yards on 19 carries. Geppert finished with 35 yards on the ground.

Kennett used two quarterbacks in the game. Freshman Will Pollard played the first half, and Graziano, a sophomore, was inserted after halftime. Holderman said he entered the game planning to play both.

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Roger Brown may be reached at rbrown@unionleader.com.