'Cats claw past Fitchburg
By Chad Garner
cgarner@sentinelandenterprise.com
FITCHBURG -- Make that back-to-back impressive victories
for the Gardner High football team.

A week after edging previously undefeated Nashoba Reginal,
Gardner knocked off another extremely talented club Saturday
evening.  

Despite playing poorly in the first half, Fitchburg
regrouped in the second half and marched to the Wildcat 10
with under a minute remaining with a chance to take the game
away from the Wildcats.

But on 4th and 4 with 41 seconds left, Fitchburg quarterback
Jeremy Kimber elected to keep the option and was stuffed at
the 9, propelling Gardner to a 13-6 non-conference win at
Crocker Field.

"They outplayed us, they outcoached us, they beat us," said
Fichburg coach Ray Cosenza, whose team was impressive in an
overtime loss to Brockton last week.  "There are no excuses.
I'm very disappointed, but I give Gardner all teh crecid."

With the loss the Red Raiders dipped to 2-4 overall while
Gardner improved to 5-1.

"For a bunch of kids that nobody gave much of a shot at the
beginning of the year -- we had lost so many kids, quality
kids from last year's team -- the only thing is they forgot
to tell these kids that they weren't suppose to be very
good," said Gardner coach Walt Dubzinski.  "They work awful
hard every day."

After Gardner star kicker Donny Lemieux booted a 22 yard
field goal with 3:07 left in the game to give the Wildcats
a 13-6 lead, Fitchburg got a major spark by Malcom Wilber,
who returned the kickoff 40 yards to the Fitchburb 46.

The Red Raiders began to motor as running back Jon Gomez
picked up eight yards on an opton left and 15 more yards
were added to the run via a facemask penalty.

From there, quarterback Kimber connected with David Cosenza
for six yards and the ground game led by Matt Fraticelli and
Gomez got the ball to the 12.  Cosenza caught a pass on the
sideline for two more yards to the 10, but on fourth down
the Gardner defense clamped down and tackled Kimber on the
option keeper on fourth down en route to the victory.

"They defended it very well and we obviously didn't execute
it," said coach Cosenza of the final play of the game.  "I
give them all the credit in the world."

The first half was all Gardner.  On Gardner's opening drive
of the game, the Wildcats got their ground attack going with
backs Larry Ard, Nick Boisse and Jake Hochard (19 carries,
85 yards).  Boisse provided the biggest run of the drive --
a 27 yard scamper, and when the drive stalled at the 17,
Lemieux came in and booted a 34 yard field goal to give
Gardner a 3-0 lead.

Fitchburg turned the ball right over on the ensuing kickoff
and Gardner recovered at the Fitchburg 32.  It only took
three plays to hit pay dirt as Boisse bulldozed his way in
from 14 yards out to put Gardner up 10-0 with 5:29 left in
the first quarter.

In the first half, Gardner's defense completely shut down
Fitchburg's offense.  The Red Raider's managed only 33 yards
of total offense in the half, while turning the ball over on
downs twice and punting once.  Fitchburg had just one first
down.

Gardner had a chance to score more points just before the
half, but Lemieux missed a 43 yard field goal that was
nullified by a roughing the kicker penalty on Fitchburg, and
had his 30 yard field goal blocked by Dan Minichello to end
the half.

Fitchburg regrouped at halftime.  The Red Raiders went on an
11 play drive to the 5 to open the third quarter, but
Fraticelli's rumble up the middle on fourth down was inches
short of a first down.

While Fitchburg's defense forced Gardner to punt on its first
two drives on the second half, the Red Raider offense went
back to work.  Kimber (8 of 11 passing, 84 yards) hit Cosenza
for 23 yards down to the 6, and Fraticelli did the rest.
After a 4 yard pickup down to the 2 he followed his
blockers on the right side of the line and plunged in for a 2
yard touchdown run with 8:25 left in the fourth quarter.
The 2-point conversion run failed.

"We did a better job in the second half.  But you know what?
You have to play for 44 minutes and we didn't do that," Said
coach Cosenza.

Gardner outgained Fitchburg 214-153 for the game.
 Fitchburg High School Athletics and Competition Home Page