Devils go to ground
By Eric Avidon
 eavidon@sentinelandenterprise.com

MARLBOROUGH -- The Leominster football team played hungry
Friday night at Kelleher Field in a 22-0 shutout of
Marlborough High, eating up yardage with the ground game on
offense and devouring the Panther offense with its dominant
defense.

The Leominster (6-1) ground attack ran the ball 23 times in
the first half for 148 yards and two touchdowns, and for the
game rushed 36 times for 218 yards and three
touchdowns. Senior Tom Fallon led the way with 103 yards on
10 carries and one touchdown, including 96 yards in the
first half when the outcome of the game was still in
doubt. Junior Anthony Bizzotto scored the other two
touchdowns and totaled 73 yards rushing on 10 carries.

Senior quarterback Chris Swart had a quiet night, completing
the only pass he attempted for 17 yards, but with Leominster
so effective on the ground his arm wasn't needed.

"I thought Marlborough played us very tough up front," said
Leominster coach John Dubzinski. "We had a hard time moving
the ball, but I thought Tommy Fallon made some big runs in
the first half to get us going, and then we wore them down
in the second half."

"The offensive line made great holes," said Fallon. "We have
three running backs (including junior Adam Cordio) who can
do the job and they were making nice holes for us."

The Leominster defense, meanwhile, was simply
dominant. Marlborough (3-4) was able to gain just 107 total
yards, 78 on the ground and 29 through the air, and the
Leominster defense sacked Panther quarterback Nick Lazaros
five times for 32 yards, led by junior Sean Edge who had
three sacks for 19 yards.

"We're getting better (on defense)," Dubzinski said. "Our
goal is not to give up big plays, and we've been pretty
successful at that. Teams are still moving the ball a little
bit on us, but we're getting better as a defense. I'm happy
that we're making progress there."

The shutout was the second in a row for Leominster, which
blanked Milford 26-0 last week.

"We stepped it up (on defense)," Fallon said. "We stepped it
up the whole game, and did it at the end to keep the
shutout."

Leominster got the scoring started on the opening drive of
the game. After returning the kickoff to its 35-yard line,
the Blue Devils embarked on a 13-play, 65-yard drive that
ate up more than seven minutes of the first quarter. On
second-and-goal from the five yard line, Bizzotto broke a
tackle after being stopped cold by two defenders at the line
of scrimmage and ran the ball in to give Leominster a 6-0
lead.

With the first half winding down the score was still 6-0,
but then the Blue Devils went 64 yards in less than a minute
for their second score of the game. Fallon got the drive
started with a 29-yard run, and then finished the drive with
a 27-yard dash up the middle for the score. After Bizzotto
punched in the two-point conversion Leominster led 14-0.

The Blue Devils scored the final touchdown on a 22-yard run
by Bizzotto through the right side of the Leominster line,
capping an 11-play, 60-yard drive late in the third quarter.

Leominster faces a stiff test next Friday night, traveling
to Eastern Mass. power Brockton High.
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