Wildcats can't be stopped
By Mike LeClair Correspondent
GARDNER -- The Gardner football team broke a drought of
its own on Friday night.

The Wildcats ended a six-game losing streak against
Fitchburg and notched their first victory over the Red
Raiders since 1989 with a 46-14 win.

Gardner rattled off 22 points in the second quarter, opened
a 29-8 halftime lead and never looked back as the Wildcats
were able to rebound from last week's loss to Wachusett
Regional.

"The kids were down after the Wachusett game last week,"
said Gardner coach Walt Dubzinski Jr. "I thought we put in a
great team effort tonight, on both sides of the ball."

Gardner (7-1) opened the scoring with 8:48 to play in the
first quarter. The Wildcats took the opening kickoff and
brought it to the Fitchburg 30 yard line. The Wildcats then
went 30 yards on six plays. Gardner scored when Jordan
Rankine capped the drive with the first of his three scoring
runs, a five-yard run into the end zone to make it 6-0. An
extra point by Donny Lemieux made it 7-0 before Fitchburg
(3-5) touched the ball.

The Red Raiders took the Gardner kickoff and put together a
12-play, 66 yard drive that ended with an eight-yard
touchdown run by Justin McDonald to put Fitchburg on the
board. McDonald took the conversion run across the goal line
to make it 8-7 Fitchburg with 2:41 to play in the first
quarter.

The score remained 8-7 until the opening minutes of the
second quarter when Kyle Desrosiers scored the first of his
three touchdowns on a 72-yard run. The conversion pass from
quarterback C.J Cameron to Jason Chicoine was successful
making it 15-8 with 9:51 to play in the second quarter.

Gardner added two more scores in the second quarter.

"There really isn't anything very positive that we can take
away from this game," said Fitchburg coach Ray
Cosenza. "Give Gardner credit. They played a great game and
they outplayed us and gave us what we deserved. They
deserved to win this game tonight."

Gardner added 14 points in the third quarter.

In the fourth, a Lemieux field goal from 39 yards out was
the only points Gardner scored. Fitchburg's Eldred Wright
proved that Fitchburg would not go down quietly when he
capped an eight-play, 80-yard drive with a 19-yard run to
close out the scoring.

 
 


Fitchburg High School Athletics and Competition Home Page