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The 122nd edition of the traditional Thanksgiving Day football game between the visiting Woburn Tanners (6-5) and the Winchester Red & Black (8-3) is now in the books, and by all accounts it will be remembered for different reasons.
The Winchester boys won the high scoring affair at Knowlton Stadium, 35-28, and as a result, broke the tie in the long running series, which now stands at 56-55-12.
Winchester veteran coach Wally Dembowski understands fans love a lot of scoring, but he saw things in this game that coaches inevitably cringe about afterwards.
“High scoring rivalry games may be exciting for the spectators, but we were a little frustrated by our lack of execution on the defensive side of the ball,” said Dembowski. “We had opportunities to slow them down, and did not take advantage of some situations. Our lack of concentration led to untimely penalties (that ultimately created the high score).”
Junior running back Nick Rotondi ignited the Winchester offense with an 18-yard touchdown run. His classmate Gianni DePrimeo followed up that score with a 93-yard sprint to paydirt. It was his first of three touchdowns in the game.
Junior quarterback Ronan O'Connell closed out another scoring drive from the one. DePrimeo came back with two more long touchdown runs of 47 and 62 yards. Overall, DePrimeo carried the ball 15 times for a whopping 303 yards.
“The offensive line did a great job blocking throughout the entire game,” said Dembowski.
Sophomore Will Bolognese successfully nailed all of his extra points after each of the team’s five touchdowns against the Tanners.
Dembowski is thrilled with how the entire season turned out, which also featured many young players.
“It was a super exciting year with a bunch of new starters and a couple close losses,” he said. “It was great to return to the (Division 2) quarterfinals, but now we have to put some work into the offseason to challenge ourselves on going even further, not to mention fight for the (league title).”
The Red & Black, the sixth seed in Division 2, lost that quarterfinal game to host Marshfield, the third seed, 48-28, after beating visiting Peabody, the 11th seed, in the Round of 16, 35-27. The Rams, however, dropped a 34-15 decision to King Philip, the second seed, in the state semifinals.
But the Warriors were then taken to school by top seed Catholic Memorial in the D-2 Super Bowl game at Gillette Stadium last week, 39-21.
The many young players on the Winchester roster this year grew up in a hurry, because of the senior leadership, according to Dembowski, which bodes well for more success in the near future.
“Seniors did a nice job in leading this team,” added Dembowski. “Senior captain Jake Tempesta was a Middlesex League all-star, and also won the Mr. P. Award (at last week’s team banquet) for his spirit and leadership abilities this year, along with teammate Jack Johnson.
“(Junior lineman) Omar Alosta was a league all-star, and he also took home the Doc Hines (Coaches) Award (from the banquet),” he continued. “Joe Guida made the league all-star team, as well. Among the underclassmen, Ted Budreski, Bryan Harrison and DePrimeo were chosen to the All-League team.”
A look ahead
Dembowski said he has many skilled players returning next year, but the offensive and defensive lines need to gain more experience, because as he puts it, “we want to be competing for another winning season, a conference title and a deeper run in the state playoffs. This is all assuming with hard work we also have good health (throughout the entire schedule).”
Dembowski admits the team won’t be in full football mode until next summer, because many of his athletes play multiple sports, which is a good thing.
“But once we get to the summer, we'll focus on the opportunities in front of us to prepare (properly) for the season,” the coach said.
