FHS rolls forward
By Dean Glanzman Article Launched: 11/03/2007 10:12:30 AM EDT
HOLDEN -- Fitchburg quarterback Jeremy Kimber stood behind his center, his players set, and surveyed the Wachusett Regional defense. What he saw was a tired, complacent and beaten Mountaineers team. What he was doing was milking the clock. With a 34-14 lead and two minutes to go in the game, the Red Raiders were able to savor the taste of clinching their first postseason appearance since 2003. "We're in," said a booming Fitchburg coach Ray Cosenza. "It feels great." The only other 1-0 team in Central Mass. Division 1 North football heading into Friday night, was Leominster. But the Blue Devils lost to St. John's, 27-14, leaving the Red Raiders the only 2-0 team in the division. "Leominster lost," Cosenza said, "but I don't care about that. We are happy. We won. We are in the playoffs. We are excited." Last week against Algonquin Regional, Josh Less saw limited touches after hauling in five passes for 93 yards and six points the week before in Fitchburg's comeback win over St. John's. In the team's 49-7 route of the Tomahawks, Less finished with one reception for just 26 yards. Less' numbers in Friday's game were quite similar to those last week against Algonquin, but proved to be much more significant. "It was a fourth-down play, we kind of took a shot," Cosenza said, "it was a good call. Jeremy (Kimber) made a great throw and Josh made a great catch." The Red Raiders faced a fourth-and-long on their first possession of the fourth quarter with six and a half minutes remaining and, without any hesitation, Cosenza decided to go for it -- go figure. Already clinging to a one-score lead, 21-14, Kimber dropped back in the pocket and threw a prayer to the right corner of the end zone. Less, who ran an out pattern, stopped and turned back to his quarterback. As he was looking for the ball, Wachusett's Mike Hakkarainen tried distracting Less from catching the ball while avoiding any sort of conduct that may result in a pass interference penalty. But Less leaped over the helmet of Hakkarainen and brought the pass into his chest before falling on his back for the 22-yard touchdown. "He's been solid all year for us," Cosenza told the Sentinel and Enterprise, Wednesday, about Less. "We have confidence throwing to him, and we've always had that. He's always had great hands." The catch put the Red Raiders up 28-14, and took the wind out of the Mountaineers' sails. Wachusett fell flat and never recovered. "They played very well in the first half," said Cosenza. "Give them tremendous credit, but we played much better in the second half. "I thought our defense played great all game. That drive in the second half really hurt us, then they got a big play on us, but other than that I think our defense played great." After Kimber (7-for-10, 124 yards) connected with Orlando Anderson on a 40-yard play-action pass, Kimber's first touchdown pass of the day, Fitchburg tacked its second touchdown on a Johnny Gomez (14 carries, 297 yards) 4-yard run. But the Mountaineers fought right back. Wachusett quarterback Sean Quinlivan, who struggled to find a receiver all game, connected with Matt LeBlanc for a 43-yard pass that led to a Hakkarainen 1-yard score to cut Fitchburg's lead in half. On the Red Raiders' opening drive of the second half, the Mountaineers forced Kimber to fumble. One player and 13 seconds later, Eric Darko bolted out of the backfield for a 78-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 14. "I thought their defense gave us fits," said Cosenza. "But we hung with it and made some plays." That the Red Raiders did, scoring twice in the third and twice more in the fourth. Kimber, besides throwing three touchdown passes, also made things happen on the other side of the ball, intercepting two Quinlivan passes in the second half. And Anderson, after already bringing down a Kimber play-action pass for a score, slammed the exclamation point on Wachusett with a 39-yard reception from Kimber. "I think the run sets that up (the play action)," said Cosenza. "We are ripping up some pretty good yardage running the ball, then at the right time, Tom DeGeronimo made the right choice and we did it twice, for touchdowns." The Red Raiders sit atop Division 1 North with a 2-0 record, followed by Wachusett (1-1), St. John's (1-1), and Leominster (1-1). Fitchburg faces off against the Blue Devils on Thanksgiving Day.
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