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The Winchester High football team (6-2) is beginning the Division 2 state tournament playoffs Friday night (Nov. 8) at Knowlton Stadium on a roll after winning five out of its last six regular season games, including last Friday’s (Nov. 1) dominant home triumph over Middlesex League rival Lexington (2-6), 42-13.
The Red & Black ended up as the sixth seed in the divisional power rankings, and will host Peabody (4-4, 11th seed) out of the Northeastern Conference in a Round of 16 game on Friday night, once again.
The host Tanners defeated coach Wally Dembowski’s young squad in the opening game of the season on Sept. 13, 27-21. But that was then, and this is now, and the Winchester boys are ready to prove they have grown up as varsity football players since that early September game.
The Red & Black allowed Lexington just 127 rushing yards on 28 carries and one touchdown to control the pace of play on the most important side of the ball. In the air, the Winchester defense was equally as stingy. The Minutemen completed just three of eight passes for 37 yards and one touchdown.
The Winchester defense altogether was credited with six tackles for losses, while only needing to make 30 tackles throughout the entire game.
Junior running back Gianni DePrimeo ran the ball 11 times for 152 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first half. Besides Gianni’s three first half touchdowns, his teammates scored twice more before halftime.
After Lexington tied up the game at seven, Nicky Rotondi regained the lead for his teammates with a touchdown from the one. Junior Ryan Martin closed out the first half scoring, when he was on the receiving end of a Ronan O’Connell 32-yard scoring strike.
Freshman Nolan Byrne scored the home team’s lone second half touchdown in the third quarter on a seven-yard run, sophomore Will Bolognese nailed all of his six extra point attempts to account for the final score.
“As a team, we ran for over 250 yards,” said Dembowski. “Gianni helped carry the load on offense with his running, while on defense Mike Ficociello, Omar Alosta (one fumble recovery), Brogan Salvietti, Quinn Pimentel and Bryan Harrison (2) led the way with tackles for losses.”
The veteran Winchester coach doesn’t put too much thought into the power rankings, saying, “there are too many divisions and Super Bowls (in today’s game),” but then added, “there is no perfect system to keep everyone happy.”
But regardless of the current system, he knows Friday night’s home playoff opener won’t be easy.
“We lost to Peabody by six points on opening night in Peabody, so we are going to have our hands full,” Dembowski said. “Peabody has a big, strong offensive and defensive line, and employs a three-man defensive line with four linebackers. They are primarily a one-back offense.”
Dembowski is naturally quite pleased with the team’s development, but says, “we still make too many little mistakes that change week to week based on the opponent or situation. We are still a work in progress.”
But that aforementioned winning momentum just might be that intangible, which sends the Winchester boys to the Elite 8 game on Nov. 15.
