Kick costs Fitchburg
By Chris Maza
FITCHBURG -- One foot. 

That's all that separated the Red Raiders from completing
another stunning comeback.

But an extra point attempt off the foot of Luke Arno fell
just short and Fitchburg dropped a heartbreaker to Wachusett
Regional, 20-19, Friday at Crocker Field.

Moments before, Jeremy Kimber found Josh Less with a 25-yard
pass to the front corner of the end zone to close within one
after trailing by 13 at the break.

After getting stopped on 4th-and-goal at the 1, the Raiders
forced Wachusett to a three-and-out and a short punt set up
the score.

Starting from the 35-yard line, Kimber completed a pass to
Less for 7 yards. Jon Gomez followed with a draw that took
the team just short of the first-down marker. From there,
the Raiders went no huddle, catching the Mountaineers off
guard, as Kimber found a wide open Less, who made the catch
at the 2, then fell into the end zone for the score.

Instead of going for the win, the Raiders elected to go for
the tie. Arno, who had been 1 for 2 on the night kicking
extra points, set up for the PAT. His kick had the height,
but fell just in front of the crossbar, crushing Fitchburg's
hopes.

"It was a bad call. It was my call and it was a bad call,"
Fitchburg head coach Ray Cosenza said. "Our philosophy
usually is that we go for it and we should have. It's not
the kicker's fault. That one's on me."

Kimber finished his evening with 108 yards and two
touchdowns on 5 of 10 passing.

"He played great," Cosenza said. "He brought us back and our
offense caught fire."

Less caught three balls for 53 yards and a touchdown while
Orlando Anderson had a 60-yard touchdown reception.

Matt Fraticelli led the Raiders on the ground with 81 yards
and a touchdown on 18 carries while Gomez had 72 yards on 20
carries.

Quarterback Tony Tokarz was 6 for 9 passing for 74 yards and
a touchdown while rushing 12 times for 50 yards and two
scores.

Keith Bates caught a game-high five passes for 47 yards and
a touchdown.

Andrew Tokarz rushed for 88 yards on 12 carries and Mike
Hakkarainen had 62 yards on seven carries.

The Mountaineers jumped out to the early lead, taking
advantage of a 15-yard facemask penalty on the kickoff, when
Tony Tokarz capped off the game's opening drive with a
two-yard keeper.

Fitchburg struck back in the second when Kimber hooked up
with Anderson for a 60-yard touchdown. Anderson made a nice
catch over his shoulder at the 25 and high-stepped out of an
attempted shoestring tackle by the defender, and sprinted to
paydirt.

But Tony Tokarz found the end zone again with 2:42 remaining
in the half, this time from 1 yard out.

The Mountaineers finished off the half with another
touchdown when Tony Tokarz found Bates for a 10-yard
touchdown pass with Bates barely clearing the goal line.

Wachusett wouldn't score again. 

"Our defense did a great job in the second half keeping them
out of the end zone," Cosenza said.

Fraticelli opened the second half scoring with a 2-yard run
off left tackle to close the gap to 20-13.

Wachusett had a chance to pad its lead, but from the
Fitchburg 26, couldn't connect on three pass attempts to the
end zone -- the last being defended nicely by Chris Cormier.

The Mountaineers returned the favor, stuffing the Raiders on
the 1-yard line with 1:47 remaining to end a 19-play drive
down the field by Fitchburg.

But Wachusett could do nothing with the ball and punted to
the Raiders, setting up the final drive of the game.

"This one hurts," Cosenza said. "We played a much better
second half, but we didn't finish that drive and we didn't
finish the game the way we should have."

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