Red Raiders Punish Patriots
Fitchbur posts 3rd straight shutout, improves to 7-2 By Rick Eggleston
FITCHBURG - At least nobody got hurt. Bigger, stronger and simply more experienced, the Fitchburg High football team knew what it was up against Friday night at Crocker Field: a struggling and young North Middlesex Regional squad. Still, no matter who the opponent may have been, the Red Raiders had to come ready to play. And they did, posting their third shutout in as many weeks and fourth consecutive win with a 43-0 pounding of the Patriots on Homecoming. "We played a very good first half of football," Fitchburg head coach Ray Cosenza said. "That allowed us to play a lot of the other kids in the second half -- they work very hard every week in practice." Ironically enough, it was a former North Middlesex player in Fitchburg's Matt Donovan who ran wild over his old team, as the junior fullback scored four touchdowns for the Red Raiders. Sophmore running back William Earley chipped in three more scores for the Red Raiders (7-2, 4-1), who did all their damage in the first half. Very much alive and well in the Division 1 Super Bosl hunt, Fitchburg returns to Crocker Field next Friday to face league strength St. John's which hosts Leominster in a battle of the unbeatens at 1:30PM today in Shrewsbury. "St John's is all that's on our minds now. It's going to be a great game, and we're going to have a great week at practice," Cosenza said. "It's great, too, because we're going to be home for the game. It's nice to be home again after four straight games on the road." Four straight road games that saw the Red Raiders go 3-1, with wins over Shrewsbury, Milford and Oakmont Regional. Now that North Middlesex is out of the way, the focus turns to St John's before finally facing rival Leominster on Thanksgiving. On Friday, the overmatched Pats (0-9) didn't have a chance against the Red Raiders' monster offensive and defensive lines, and big-play backs in Earley and Donovan. Fitchburg acconted for 269 of it's 349 total yards in the first half alone. Also in the opening 22 minutes, the Raiders scored touchdowns on their first five possessions. The other two scores consisted of TD punt returns of 55 and 70 yards by Donoovan, who finished with 209 all purpose yards on the night, including touchdown runs of 2 and 55 yards. Meanwhile, Earley hit the ground for touchdown runs of 44, 53 and 28 yards, and rushed for 163 yards. In the second half, the Raiders' bench entered, and were led by the play of quarterback Curt Barrett, center Adam Wuoti, and running backs Deashawn Perkins, Clarence Jones, Sean Thomas and freshmen backs Willie Sherman and Ray Earley. Defensively, Joe Golden came up with a fumble recovery for FHS, and Gumba Payton recoved an errant Noth Middlesex punt in the first quarter to set up Early's second straight score -- a 53 yard take down the far sideline. The only downside to Fitchburg's dominating performance: hitting just one of five point-after tries, while coming up empty on the other two conversions.
Fitchburg High School Athletics and Competition Home Page