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As has been the pattern since the opening game of the season against Peabody at Knowlton Stadium back on Sept. 12, the Red & Black (9-0, fourth seed) has jumped on the opposition from the start, and never looked back.
They won that game against the Tanners, 42-7, and the winning has continued right into last Friday night’s Division 2 Round of 16 playoff opener, also at Knowlton, against visiting North Quincy (4-5, 13th seed). They led the Raiders big at halftime, 35-0, and proceeded to cruise to victory after that to the tune of 42-6.
Next up for the Winchester boys is Lincoln-Sudbury (8-1, fifth seed) after the Warriors defeated Concord-Carlisle (4-5, 12th seed) in their Round of 16 game, also last Friday night, 27-7. They will welcome their Dual County League counterparts to Knowlton for tonight’s (Nov. 14) Elite 8 game, starting at 6:30 p.m.
After the game against North Quincy, Coach Wally Dembowski once again had no complaints with the way his team executed the gameplan.
“We (as a coaching staff) were extremely pleased with the execution and effort (in this game against North Quincy),” Dembowski said. “They handled their assignments well on both sides of the ball, and were able to control the line of scrimmage. The passing game, in particular, had one of its most productive (games) of the season with contributions across the board.”
Senior quarterback Ronan O’Connell got the offense going with a 33-yard touchdown pass to Mike Ficociello. Placekicker Will Bolognese then nailed his first of six successful extra points.
Captain Gianni DePrimeo then scooted 45-yards to account for the team’s second touchdown, and he followed that up by being on the receiving end of an O’Connell 79-yard scoring strike. A short time later, the captain made it three straight scores with a three-yard run to paydirt.
O’Connell then hooked up with Will Nelson for a 52-yard TD bomb to complete the first half offensive assault on the Raiders.
In the third quarter, the Winchester senior signal caller found his classmate Nicky Rotondi to produce the team’s last touchdown of the game from 43 yards out.
O’Connell was Dembowski’s choice for offensive player of the game after completing 6 of 10 passes for 215 yards and four touchdowns. DePrimeo sustained drives with 11 carries for 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns to go along with his 79-yard touchdown reception. Mike Ficociello (2 receptions, 53 yards) also factored prominently in the offense.
As effective as the offense was in this first playoff game, the defense also did its job by holding the Raiders to under 100 total yards until the last drive of the fourth quarter that resulted in their lone touchdown of the game.
Dembowski praised the efforts of captain Bryan Harrison for leading the defensive charge in shutting down the Raiders from posing any sort of consistent threat. Harrison was credited with five tackles that included three for losses, and also had one assisted stop. Junior defensive back Andrew Haigis came up with two solo tackles, and assisted on another one. He also broke up three passes.
The veteran Winchester coach offered this analysis of Friday night’s opponent: “Lincoln-Sudbury will be our biggest challenge of the year so far. They have speed and size, and the biggest lines that we’ve faced all year. They also have a quick and athletic group of skill players, and so we'll need to be executing (perfectly) on both sides of the ball (to beat them). We have to create takeaways on defense, while having no turnovers on offense to have success against them.”
The good news is that the Red & Black are as healthy as they can be going into Game 10, according to Dembowski, but with the offense still on cruise control through nine games, the Warriors will also have their hands full. They like everybody else knows the numbers. Counting the North Quincy game, Winchester has outscored opponents, 391-98.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News last November.
