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It’s now on to the Division 2 Super Bowl playoffs for the Winchester High School football team (8-0) after it defeated Belmont last Friday night at Knowlton Stadium with another dominating performance, 42-8. In their eight regular season games, they outscored the opposition rather convincingly, 349-92.
Coach Wally Dembowski’s team is seeded fourth, and is scheduled to play host to North Quincy (4-4, 13th seed) to begin those playoffs on Friday night, Nov. 7, at Knowlton, starting at 6:30 p.m.
There are only 14 Division 2 teams in the playoffs this year after Cambridge decided to opt out. As a result, Catholic Memorial and Bishop Feehan, the division’s top two teams, are getting byes in this week’s Round of 16.
Regardless of the playoff machinations, the Red & Black are more than ready to go, especially their explosive offense. They scored 42 unanswered first half points against the aforementioned Marauders to take a commanding lead on Senior Night. Belmont, however, avoided the shutout in the fourth quarter with its lone touchdown of the game.
“We were able to play all 23 healthy seniors during the course of the (Belmont) game on Senior Night, and they all played well,” said Dembowski.
Senior captain Gianni DePrimeo was once again the ignitor on offense, when he scampered 38 yards to account for the first touchdown of the game. Junior placekicker Will Bolognese then nailed his first of six successful extra points in this game.
DePrimeo added two more rushing touchdowns in the first half, both from 14 yards away. His classmate Nick Rotondi scored two from six and two yards out, and the rout was on. Junior running back Dominic Vozzella was credited with the team’s final touchdown of the game late in the second quarter.
For the record, Belmont quarterback Kyle Curtis hooked up with Andre Chavushian for a six-yard scoring strike. Elijah Pierre then ran the ball in on the two-point conversion attempt.
Dembowski played his starters on defense for three series, before taking them out to rest them up for the postseason. Ilyas Malik stood out on that side of the ball with three tackles for losses, all in the first quarter.
On offense, Winchester only threw two passes in this game, while running the ball for 288 total yards. DePrimeo was the leading rusher with an even 100 yards, plus three touchdowns. Rotondi chewed up 79 yards to go along with his two scores.
As soon as the Winchester boys dispatched Belmont, all of their attention turned to the playoffs. Last Sunday, once the pairings were announced, they found out that it was going to be the North Quincy Raiders out of the Patriot League, who will be their first-round opponents.
“North Quincy appears to be a tough, physical team with solid size and speed on the first and second levels,” said Dembowski. “We’ll need to be ready for their defensive pressure, and while we are on defense, we have to play sound assignment football, because they like to throw the deep ball.”
Dembowski, like all coaches, won’t project beyond the first playoff game, but he did say, “we’re pretty healthy at this point, and would like to just get to the next round and play the winner of the Lincoln-Sudbury (7-1, fifth seed) / Concord-Carlisle (4-4, 12th seed) Round of 16 game also on Friday night. But that game will begin at 7 p.m., and no matter how it comes out, Winchester, if victorious against the Raiders, will get another home game at Knowlton.
But like Dembowski said, “we’ll only worry about what's in front of us right now,” and that’s once again North Quincy.
But the fans think differently. They know that in two weeks, if they keep on winning, they will be playing in the Division 2 state semifinals, with the winner going to Gillette Stadium in early December to play for the Super Bowl championship.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News last November.
