Blue Devils hunger for Thanksgiving victory
By Eric Avidon
As the regular season reaches its climax on Thanksgiving
with archrival Fitchburg High rolling into Doyle Field
Thursday morning, the Leominster High football team's
defense is playing its best football of the season.

The Blue Devils will be looking to reverse the recent
dominance by Fitchburg in this rivalry. The Red Raiders have
won the last five meetings between the two schools and 12 of
the last 13. Heading into the 120th meeting between
Fitchburg and Leominster — the 98th on Thanksgiving —
Fitchburg leads the series 57-53-9.

From the very start of the season this year the Leominster
offense played well, eating up yardage on the ground and
occasionally striking through the air. The defense, however,
had moments when it didn't do its job, and only in the last
weeks of the season has played up to the level at which it
will need to perform against the powerful ground attack of
the Red Raiders.

"I think we've improved tremendously since the beginning of
the year on defense," said Leominster coach John
Dubzinski. "Our offense has done the job all year. They've
done a good job. But the thing that has pushed us over the
top lately has been the defense."

Leominster opened the season at Everett, possibly the best
team in all of Massachusetts. The defense made Everett work,
but the Crimson Tide was able to slowly grind out yards and
put points on the scoreboard. After Everett went ahead 21-0
in the second quarter, the Leominster offense fought back,
but two more touchdowns by the Crimson Tide against the
Leominster defense put the game out of reach.

Things have changed, however.

After allowing 27 points in a win over Nashoba Regional in
the third game of the season, Leominster's defense got on a
roll. It allowed 10 points to a good St. Peter-Marian team,
a mere eight to Eastern Mass. power Boston College High, and
then pitched consecutive shutouts against Milford and
Marlborough. Another Eastern Mass. power — Brockton —
put up 22 points against Leominster, but the Blue Devil
defense recovered in its last two games, permitting
St. John's 14 points and Shrewsbury seven.

The Leominster defense will again be challenged on Thursday
morning when the Blue Devils will try to break a 5-game
losing streak to Fitchburg. Its job will be to stop William
Earley, something no team has done all season.

Heading into Thanksgiving, Earley has amassed 2,033 yards
rushing, including a season-high of 390 yards against
Nashoba, and 30 touchdowns. Both his rushing and touchdown
totals lead all of Central Mass. Earley's lowest rushing
total came in the first game of the season, at Xaverian,
when he ran for 102 yards.

"In any game, defensively, we need all 11 guys to do their
jobs," said Dubzinski.

Up front, junior Peter Gounaridis is a standout on the
defensive line, while the linebacking corps is led by junior
Anthony Bizzotto and seniors John Ciccone and Sean Edge, and
the defensive backfield is headed up by senior Ryan Rendon
and junior Adam Cordio.

As the defense continues to improve, the Leominster offense
has been a strength all season.

Running backs Bizzotto, Cordio and senior captain Tom Fallon
have paced the offense from the beginning. The three split
the workload.

Cordio is the team's leading runner wit 948 yards on the
season and Bizzotto is the leading scorer with 13 touchdowns
and three two-point conversions for 84 points.

The Leominster quarterback is Chris Swart, who is in his
first year as the starter and, like the defense, has
improved steadily throughout the season.

"I think he's done a great job," said Dubzinski. "He's been
our most improved player. He was the hardest-working kid in
the off-season."

Swart has completed 29 of 54 passes on the season for 549
yards and four touchdowns.

"Offensively, we just need everybody working together in
order to be successful," said Dubzinski.

The offense and defense are clicking as Leominster prepares
for Fitchburg, but a concern remains the Blue Devil special
teams.

"Special teams has not done a good job," said
Dubzinski. "We've missed a lot of extra points, and we need
to work on that."

He added that in order to beat Fitchburg on Thanksgiving for
the first time in six years, Leominster will need to perform
well in "all areas. They are a great team, and we have to
play a great game to stay with them. It will take a great
effort from the offense, defense and special teams."

Following its game against Shrewsbury, its last before
Thanksgiving, Leominster emerged relatively unscathed, a
healthy team heading into its biggest game of the
season. Fitchburg similarly escaped its game against
St. John's physically healthy.

"The kids are going to be excited," said Dubzinski. "It's
going to be a great game."


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