Raiders starting to put it together
Fitchburg racks up 444 yards of offense
By Chris Forsberg
cforsberg@sentinelandenterprise.com


MARLBOROUGH -- How appropriate that the Fitchburg football buses were
queued up on Jefferson Street outside Kerlleher Statium.  On the
heels of a throrough 28-14 victory over host Marlbrough, these Red
Raiders certainly feel as if they are moving on up.

Fitchburg piled up 444 yards of total offensse, highlighted by a pair
of long touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Jeremy Kimber to
senior wide receiver David Cosenza in the first half that helped build
an early two touchdown cushion.

The Red Raiders defense took care of the rest, showcasing the same
bend-but-don't-break stature it utilized last week in a similar
non-conference triumph over Nashoba Regional.

"I think we're really coming together as a team," said Fitchburg coach
Ray Cosenza, whose troops improved to 4-5 overall and can creep back
to .500 next Fricay when they resume conference play against North
Middlesex Regional.

"We played a great second half last week and I think we put together
four good quarters here against a team that has had a lot of success
lately.  Physically, we did a great job and that's what we wanted to
do.  We wanted to wear them down."

The wear down came in the second half where Fitchburg didn't throw a
single pass, but piled up 225 rushing yeards on the backs of
sophomores Jon Gomes and Matt Fraticelli.

Gomes finished with a game high 202 yards on 27 carries with two
touchdowns, while Fratecelli added 95 yards on 16 attempts.  Kimber
was 6 of 9 passing for 137 yards and the two touchdowns.

"The offense really fells like it's coming together," said David
Cosenza.  "We're playing great as a unit right now and our defense is
playing real tough as well."

It was the Red Raiders' big play offense that put them in control
early.  While Marlborough utilzed every razzle-dazzle play in its
playbook hoping for a big strike in the first half, Fitchburg produced
a pair of home runs the old fashioned way.

After a roughting the kicker penalty gave the Red Raiders a new set of
downs on their own 45 during the team's first possession, Kimber
utilzed a nifty pump fake that allowed David Cosenza to get behind the
defense on a 55 yard touchdown reception for a 7-0 advantage with
4:45 remaining in the first half.

Less than three minutes later, Kimber and Cosenza hooked up again.
This time it was a post route down the middle of the field
manufacturing a 58 yard score and a 14-0 advantage with 2:05 to go.

"We just took what they gave us," said Ray Cosenza.  "We saw they were
really aggresive on the run in the secondary, so we took advantage with
our passing game."

Marlborough (4-5) would slice its deficit in half on an 8 yard
touchdown run by Steve Blair in the second quarter, but Fitchburg
senior Mike Johnson returned a short kickoff 65 yards to set up Jon
Gomez's 4 yard touchdown jaunt that sent the Red Raiders into the
break up 21-7.

Gomez added a 9 yard touchdown run in the third quarter to push the
lead back up to three touchdowns.  Gomez carried 17 times for 138
yards in the second half and Kimber didn't throw a single pass.


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