Ground game sparks Raiders
By Chris Forsberg
cforsberg@sentinelandenterprise.com


WORCESTER -- In the days leading up to Saturday night's tilt with
Wachusett Reginal, Fitchbur football coach Ray Cosenza said he was
hoping for a little more consistency in his team's ground attack.

Forty carries, 247 yards and three rushing touchdowns later, the Red
Raiders seem to have found some stability in their backfield.

That stability came largely in the form of 5 foot 7, 165 pound
sophomore tailback Jon Gomez, who piled up 221 yards on 23 carries
and accounted for his team's final eight points as visiting Fitchburg
defeated Wachusett, 20-13 in a Divsion 1 contest at John F. Coughlin
field on the campus of Worcester State College.

"We ran the ball extremely well today," said Cosenza, whose charges
improved to 2-2 overall and more importantly, 2-0 in conference play.
"For Gomex, this was his coming out party.  We knew he was a great
player, but he really steped up today and that's great to see.  And
I'm happy with the offensive line, they did some good things."

The Red Raiders tinkered with their line after three sub-par rushing
performances to start the season with Shane Boucher moving to guard and
Derek Paine shifting to center.

And while the movement might not be done, it certainly paid dividends
Saturday.  Sophomore fullback Matt Fraticelli and sophomore
quarterback Jeremy Kimber both scored on 1 yard runs as Fitchburg
rallied from an early deficit, and Gomez's 22 yard jaunt with 1:34
remaining all but punctuated the triumph.

"You hear this all the time, but it's a simple game," said Wachusett
coach Mike Dubzinski, whose team piled up 202 rushing yards of its own.
"If you block and tackle, you're going to win.  They blocked and
tackled better than we did."

Wachusetts (1-3, 0-2) -- the two time defending Division 1A Super
Bowl champs who moved up to Division 1 this season along with North
Middlesex Regional -- had a chance to force overtime after Gomez's
touchdown run.

Taking over at their own 36 the Mountaineers crossed midfield on the
aid of a personal foul call and penetrated as deep as the Fitchburg 21
before a holding call backed them up.

Facing 3rd and 15 from the Red Raider 32, sophomore quarterback Anthony
Tokarz flipped a screen pass to Pat Massey in the flat.  The senior
tailback, who tallied 77 yards on the ground and scored twice, was
stipped trying to fight for extra yardage and Firchburg defensive back
Jon Berthiaume pounced on the fumble with 26 seconds remaining to
secure the victory.

"I think we're still trying to figure out who goes where," said
Cosenza.  "We're still changing guys, but changing because we've got a
lot of good players and guys are stepping up and doing a good job.
We're getting close.  We did some good things today, and defensively
we came up with some big stops in key situations."

Wachusett reached the scoreboard first with a 9 play, 80 yard scoring
drive that spanned into the second quarter.  A 46 yard halfback pass
from Dan Wilde(team high 107 yards on 20 carries) to Anthony Kewley 93
receptinos, 54 yards) set up a 9 yard touchdown trot by Massey with
9:50 remaining in the half.

Fitchburg responded with a scoring drive of its own with Gomez doing
the bulk of the work.  His 32 yard jaunt on an option pitch led to a 1
yard plunge by Fraticelli that sliced Wachussett's lead to 7-6 at the
break.

The Red Raiders took their first lead with a 10 play, 76 yard scoring
drive in the third quarter.  Kimber completed a 20 yard pass to Josh
Less on a drive that the sophomore signal caller capped with a 1 yard
sneak.  Gomez added the conversion rush for a 14-7 advantage at 3:38.

Wachusett had an opportunity to knot the game when Massey broke free
on a 38 yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter,
but the PAT kick sailed wide.  The Red Raiders went on to sandwich
the pivtal scoring drive between two defensive stops to preserve the
win.

A soft spoden Gomez -- who had nine runs of 10 yards or better on the
day -- heaped all the priase on his offensive line (a line that might
have got a moral boost from the appearance of former stanout Austin
Douglas).

"The offensive line worked hard," said Gomez.  "They did all the hard
work for me."

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