Table of Contents
After the first two weeks of the high school football season, the Winchester football team has some symmetry going after beating non-league opponents Peabody and Waltham by identical 42-7 scores. They mixed things up somewhat in Friday night’s (Sept. 26) home game against the Masco Chieftains, but it was still a blowout to the tune of 56-22.
After the Waltham game, Coach Wally Dembowski, who’s now in his 15th season as the Red & Black coach, couldn’t help but like what he sees so far, even though he admits that there’s still room for improvement.
“We played better than the week before (against Peabody) with regards to our execution, but there are areas that we have to get better in like tackling on defense, and not missing any key blocking assignments on offense,” said Dembowski.
The Winchester boys enjoyed a 13-0 lead at halftime, but really broke the Waltham game wide open in the third quarter with four more touchdowns for a total of 29 points. The home team Hawks spoiled the shutout bid by the Winchester defense with a touchdown in the third quarter.
Senior quarterback Ronan O’Connell ignited the offense with a 49-yard touchdown pass to Ted Budreski in the opening stanza. One of the few things that didn’t go their way was the first extra point, but after that everything pretty much worked like clockwork.
Junior quarterback Peter Alexopoulos then got his turn to chuck the football downfield that included a 14-yard second quarter scoring strike to Budreski. Will Bolognese added the exclamation point with his first of four extra points.
Captain Gianni Deprimeo started the third quarter uprising off with a 30-yard TD run. He then tacked on two more points on the conversion attempt.
O’Connell was back behind center to heave the ball 45 yards to Nick Rotondi for six more points. Nolan Byrne followed with a 28-yard run to paydirt. After Waltham accounted for its lone touchdown of the game, Deprimeo closed out the scoring in the game with a 46-yard run to the endzone, followed by another Bolognese successful boot through the uprights.
Besides his two rushing touchdowns, Deprimeo ended up carrying the ball 14 times for 199 yards. Budreski caught two passes, both for touchdowns, for 57 yards. O’Connell completed four passes for 119 yards, three of which went for touchdowns.
Dembowski said of Deprimeo: “I (always) expect good things out of him.”
The star tailback, who was a Boston Globe All-Scholastic last year, didn’t disappoint his coach once again, and as a result he named him one of the team’s stars against Waltham.
Deprimeo’s equal on defense is one of the team’s other captains and three-year starter at middle linebacker Bryan Harrison, and the coach said of him after the Waltham game: “he did a nice job calling and executing plays, and continues to be the motor of our defense.”
Dembowski also praised senior linebacker Will Mango after the Waltham game. It’s Mango’s first year in the program, but has quickly made a positive impression on the coaching staff.
“(Mango) is already second on the team in tackles,” said Dembowski.
The veteran Winchester coach also mentioned senior Chris Russo, who’s the leading tackler among the defensive linemen.
A couple of the team’s offensive stars, the aforementioned Rotondi and Deprimeo, are also impactful players on defense at cornerback, according to the coach. Captain Deprimeo is the leading tackler on defense, while his classmate is a dynamo in all three phases of the game, who also ran the ball four times for 29 yards against Waltham to go along with his long touchdown reception.
Winchester, a team that always has high expectations, is certainly not getting too giddy over a 3-0 start. They know there’s much more football left on the schedule.
Taking on Masco
Prior to Friday night’s Masco game, Dembowski had this to say about them. “The Chieftains were the most talented team that we faced last year, and this year they have a sound, aggressive defensive (unit).”
But after cruising to a 34-point victory last night (Sept. 26), the Winchester offense ended up humbling that Masco defense. It was Masco’s first loss of the year after winning three straight games to start the season.
There was symmetry to this game after all. Winchester put up 14 points in each of the four quarters for a total of 56 points.
Rotondi got the offensive going with a 24-yard touchdown run, and Bolognese then nailed his first of eight successful extra point tries.
After Masco came back to tie up the proceedings at seven apiece, the Red & Black scored the next two touchdowns. Deprimeo had them both on runs of 13- and 2-yards. The Chieftains, however, scored again to trim the deficit to six, 21-15. But Deprimeo got it right back from 27 yards away to close out the scoring in the first half.
It was a 28-15 game at halftime, and the Winchester boys added to their lead, when Deprimeo busted one 80-yards early on in the third quarter.
The Chieftains then accounted for another touchdown, but were still losing by two scores, 35-22.
Winchester finished off the game in style with three unanswered touchdowns. Byrne’s 31-yard run to paydirt started it off, followed by a Rotondi 21-yard touchdown jaunt and another one by Deprimeo, his fifth of the game, this time from the 22.
The Red & Black will now hit the road for Wakefield to go up against the Warriors Friday night (Oct. 3) at 6 p.m. It’s going to be their first game against a Middlesex League rival this year.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News last November.
