Pioneers capitalize on six FHS turnovers
St John's scores 26 points in 2nd by Chris Forsberg cforsberg@sentinelandenterprise.com
SHREWSBURY -- We may not have seen the season's first flakes, but the Fitchburg football squad got drilled by a monster snowball Saturday afternoon. The Red Raiders committed six turnovers which host St. John's turned into five touchdowns en route to a 40-14 shellacking in a Division 1 battle at Pioneer Field. Three of those turnovers came in the first half and allowed the Pioneers to score 26 points in a seven minute span during the second quarter as this conference sizzler fizzled in a steady drizzle. With the loss, there are no more conference unbeatens with Fitchburg, Leominster, North Middlesex Regional and St. John's all perched atop the standing with one league loss apiece. Wachusett Regional is right behind the pack with two defeats and four weeks remaining in the season. "We allowed one mistake to multiply and the next thing you know we're pressing and making more mistakes," said Fitchburg coach Ray Cosenza, expalining how a turnover on the last play of the firsts quarter snowballed into five fumbles and an interception. "I thought we did a nice job in the first quarter. We were trading punts, but then we made some mistakes and their credit, they capitalized." It was on one of those St. Johns punts that the wheels came off. A short kick ticked off Fitchburg's returner as time expired in the first quarter and John Perron recovered for the Pioneeers at the Fitchburg 38. Seven plays later, senior quarterback Will Atamian zipped a 5 yard touchdown pass to tight end Kevin Quaranto for a 6-0 advantage. The Red Raiders (2-5, 2-1) went three and out on their ensuing possession and St. Johns (4-3, 2-1) needed just one play for senior running back Michael Foley to rumble 68 yards for a 12-0 lead wth 6:01 remaining in the half. Fitchburg marched to the St. Johns 23 before fumbling the ball away on a botched exchange. Atamian completed four offerings on the ensuing drive, culminating wih a 17 yard touchdown pass to fullback Scott Kjellberg with 1:43 to go. But the Pionees were not finished. A bouncihng kick eluded the Red Raiders' return team and Nick Candito pounced on the loose ball at the Fitchburg 33. Five plays after, Foley took a toss to the left, cut back on a pair of would be tacklers, and raced for a 9 yard touchdown and a 26-0 advantage. "We work on trying to create turnovers every day in practice," said St. Johns coach John Adnreoli. "We believe that turnover ratio is one of the biggest keys to winning football games. We were able to establish some offense and score off those turnovers in a strong first half." The Red raiders needed a mere 14 seconds to fumble the ball away on their first possession of the second half. St. Johns knew what to do, covering 34 yards in three plays senior fullback Jeff Moore burst up the middle on a 14 yard touchdown run for a 33-0 lead. Bringing senior Josh Mathieu into the backfield provided Fitchburg with a bit of a spark and the Red Raiders struck for two touchdowns early in the fourth quarter. On the first play of the final frame, sophomore wideout Josh Less hauled in an 18 yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Jeremy Kimber. After recovering an onside kick attempt, Fitchburg needed just five plays -- including three rushes by Mathieu -- to cover 47 yards and sophomore fullback Matt Fratecelli plowed into the end zone on a 3 yard jaunt. Kimber added the conversion rush to make it 33-14 with 9:33 remaining. Fitchburg fumbled once more to end its next drive and again St. Johns capitalized. Senior speedster Matt Logan provided a 10 yard touchdown scamper to cap the scoring. St. Johns quarterbacks Atamian and Tyler McKeon combined to complete 13 of 18 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns, while Kimber was 7 of 15 for 76 yards with one score and one interception. Mathieu finished with a team high 64 yards on 10 carries and Fraticelli added 42 yards on nine rushes. St. Johns received 122 yards on 10 carries from Foley. The Pioneeers, who were on hand Friday night at Doyle Field for Wachusett's thrilling 19-14 upset of Leominster, suddenly look like the team to beat atop the league given that Fitchburg and Leominster still have to tangle on Thanksgiving. "It doesn't really matter what happens outside of here," said Andreoli, whose team piled up 355 yards of total offense, including 201 yards on the ground. "All we can do is line up and prpare one game at a time. As soon as we get out of the gates today we'll start focussing on Xaverian. That's all we can do." For Fitchburg, Cosenza concedes it's a team heading in the wrong direction. "We know we have to do a better job at all facets of the game," said Cosenza. "We have to figure out where we're going as a team because right now we're going in the wrong directino and that's the disappointing part."
Fitchburg High School Athletics and Competition Home Page