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With one more regular season game left on the schedule before the start of the Division 2 Super Bowl playoffs on Friday, Nov. 7, the Winchester High football team (7-0) — currently the fourth seed in the power rankings — kept on powering past another Middlesex League foe, when it dominated host Lexington on Oct. 23, 48-6.
The Black & Red will now welcome the Belmont Marauders to Knowlton tonight (Oct. 30) for that aforementioned pre-playoff game, starting at 6:30 p.m. The state tournament pairings are scheduled to be announced on Sunday, Nov, 2.
For the record, the Red & Black have outscored the opposition, counting Lexington, in seven games, 307-84. They jumped all over the Minutemen early and often in the first half last Thursday night to the tune of 35-6.
The blowout against Lexington allowed Coach Wally Dembowski to play many of his younger players, a luxury coaches relish in order to provide them with the opportunity to get varsity experience.
“We were (happily) able to give game reps to our younger players to expose them to varsity games under the lights,” Dembowski explained.
Senior quarterback Ronan O’Connell got things going against the Minutemen with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Martin in the first quarter.
Senior captain Gianni DePrimeo started the second quarter with a two-yard run to the endzone. He then tacked on two more points after catching a pass from Peter Alexopoulos on the conversion attempt. DePrimeo also accounted for the second score of the period from nine yards out.
Will Bolognese then nailed his first of four successful extra points in the game. The Winchester star tailback then completed the natural hat trick for touchdowns in football with a 25-yard jaunt to pay dirt.
After staking the visitors to a 28-0 lead, the Minutemen finally got on the scoreboard to spoil Winchester’s bid for a shutout. But Alexopoulos got it right back after completing a 62-yard scoring strike to Martin just before halftime.
Junior running back Dominic Vozzella scored the team’s third quarter touchdown on a two-yard run, and sophomore running back Christian Sochat closed out the Winchester scoring in the fourth quarter after scampering the final four yards for a touchdown.
DePrimeo was the team’s leading rusher against Lexington with 13 carries for 138 yards, which also included three touchdowns. Martin was on the receiving end of four catches for 146 yards, and two of them went for touchdowns. Vozzella was credited with 11 carries for 74 yards, while also factoring into the touchdown barrage with one.
On defense, Ilyas Malik chipped in with five tackles, one for a loss, and two sacks. Captain Bryan Harrison had four solo tackles, two assisted stops and one caused fumble. Henry Nagler, Andrew Haigis and Eddie Sim each had one fumble recovery.
Something on the Marauders
Dembowski scouted Belmont, Thursday night’s opponent, and says they run a multiple scheme offense, and employ an aggressive defense against the run with four down linemen up front.
“Depending on the weather, I expect screens and quick hitting plays from them on offense,” the coach added.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News last November.
