NORWICH, Conn. - The latest stop on the Mansfield Hornet World Tour was a successful one, and now Mike Redding and his football team can start to consider the challenges ahead.

They will be formidable; first a 3-7 Foxboro team that wants to salvage its season, then the Eastern Athletic Conference-champion Bishop Feehan Shamrocks, who will be defending the 2007 MIAA Eastern Mass. Division 2 championship that had its roots in a first-round playoff victory over the Hornets.

"We're gearing for Foxboro," Redding said Saturday after his team's 30-6 victory over Norwich Free Academy, "but last year, we didn't think about Feehan until the day after Thanksgiving. We're going to prepare for the next week and a half, and we'll focus on Foxboro, but we'll also do some things to get ready for Feehan and hopefully be better prepared."

Redding and the 9-1 Hornets have that luxury for the first time in a while, having clinched the Hockomock League's playoff berth by defeating North Attleboro a week ago rather than having to battle for it on Thanksgiving. But they still had some business to get out of the way first in the form of the 6-3 Wildcats, playoff-bound in Connecticut but outclassed from the very start of Saturday's game on the picturesque NFA campus.

It took only five offensive plays for the Hornets to post a 14-0 lead, and they enjoyed a 21-0 bulge with 1:14 left in the 12-minute first quarter. They were never threatened thereafter, although a special-teams touchdown by the Wildcats near the end of the first half was a reminder to maintain a certain level of intensity throughout their performance. "One good thing was that this game was kind of like King Philip," Redding said. "We played a dominant first half, but they blocked a punt and scored, and one play changed the game."

In that Halloween game at KP, a touchdown at the end of the first half trimmed Mansfield's lead to 12-7 over the upstart Warriors and threatened to change the momentum heading into the second half.

Saturday, on a fourth-and-2 play from the Mansfield 25 and with Greg DiPietrantonio back in punt formation, NFA's Andrew Kiernan blasted through the line to block the kick, and Chris Strand recovered in the end zone to draw the home team back to within 15 points with 24 seconds left in the half.

But any momentum the Wildcats might have built was torn asunder on their first snap of the second half, when Mansfield defensive tackle Nevin Cruz pursued NFA quarterback Gabe Homiski into the end zone for a 13-yard sack and a safety.

"We did like we did at King Philip, we took back control of the game in the third quarter, and that's crucial on the road, to not let that home team back," Redding said.

At the start, the Hornets were cruising. On their second offensive play, junior running back Nick Zonghetti weaved his way through the defense and then put on a finishing burst to complete a 55-yard touchdown run. Don Washburn's kick made it 7-0 just 59 seconds into play.

On the second Mansfield possession, DiPietrantonio sprinted for 45 yards down to the NFA 13, and Jeff Mallett found a wide-open Matt Schafer racing to the left corner of the end zone, making it 14-0 with 7:35 left in the opening quarter.

And on the third, the Hornets sustained a seven-play drive (and survived two holding calls and an illegal shift) to go up 21-0 on Zonghetti's 4-yard burst off left tackle with 1:14 to go.

Penalties, or the interpretation of them under Federation rules (Massachusetts uses NCAA rules) proved a thorn in the side for the Hornets, who had two intentional grounding calls for thrown-away passes that would have been perfectly legal in the Hockomock League.

But that didn't keep the Hornets from putting the game in their back pockets on a seven-play, 64-yard drive in the third quarter. A 22-yard sprint by DiPietrantonio set up a 25-yard TD toss from Mallett to Andrew Kelley with 3:44 left for the final margin. Then, to make sure NFA was beaten, Tom Sheehan recovered two Wildcat fumbles and Nate Levine intercepted a pass in the end zone with 10:14 left to play to shut down NFA's only significant penetration of Mansfield territory. "It was a good road trip," Redding said. "We played without (Dan) Glavin and (Kevon) Rogers, who are two of our top kids, and to win without them is good. I think we walked out healthy, and it's always a great experience to play a different school. They were great hosts, and it makes for a fun ride home when you win."

DiPietrantonio picked up 85 yards on five carries, Shawn Doherty 68 on 17 carries and Zonghetti 58 on six totes as Mansfield posted 264 rushing yards on the way to a 337-104 edge in total yardage.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.