Last Friday night, the Masconomet Chieftains upset the Billerica Indians, 21 to 19, and turned the heads of all Massachusetts high school football fans in front of a packed crowd.
Billerica was said to be a top-ten team in eastern Massachusetts and sports journalists everywhere had them easily beating Masco in game predictions.
“We knew we could win this game and we weren’t scared of them,” said junior quarterback Drew Gustafson.
“The offensive line played well and a great game out of the receivers, we put everything together and got the win.”
After some trickery on a reverse flea flicker that resulted in a 44-yard touchdown catch thrown by Steven Gentile to receiver Paxton Bergeron, Billerica struck first with a 6-0 lead after a failed two-point conversion attempt.
Directly after that score, senior receiver Arbri Halilaj got Masco on the board, taking a jet sweep 50 yards to the endzone, and with the extra point good from junior kicker Nicco Cefalo, Masco went up 7-6.
Masco lengthened their lead when later in the second quarter Gustafson found junior receiver Cal Weidman for a 20-yard touchdown putting them up 14-6.
After Gentile ran through the defense for a 33-yard Billerica touchdown, Masco went into halftime up 14-12.
Weidman balled out all night having 6 catches for 111 yards and a pair of touchdowns, emerging as Gustafson’s clear go-to target.
“My performance is due to Drew, our quarterback, and the line making great blocks all night. They gave me time to get open, it’s my job to catch the ball, when they do their job and I do mine it all works out,” said Weidman.
Weidman added an amazing 36-yard touchdown catch late in the third quarter to elevate Masco’s lead to 21-12.
“I saw the ball was a little underthrown and I think that was for best, I came back to the ball and he had his arms draped over mine but I scooped the ball and scored a touchdown”.
As good as the offense was, Masco’s defense is what really stood out holding a stellar offense to 19 points.
The Chieftain defensive line was lethal led by senior captain defensive end Cash Kornusky who cashed in on defense leading the team in tackles with 11.5, 3 tackles for loss (TFL), a sack, and a forced fumble. His partner in crime, senior captain defensive tackle Chas Kelly was also flying around with 7.5 tackles and 3 TFLs.
“I saw a bunch of dogs on our defense tonight. We came in ready to make a statement and when we heard they were ranked top ten, we didn’t care. With all the young kids there for youth night and everyone else watching, I’d say we definitely made our statement,” said Kelly.
The Masco defense would come up with big plays when they needed them all night. Junior outside linebacker Ryan Richardson saved a touchdown early, tracking down the Billerica receiver on a catch and run showing serious speed.
Junior safety Liam Ginley had an unbelievable second half taking an interception all the way down the field into the redzone as well as adding a 57-yard catch where it seemed no defender could take him down.
With time dwindling in the fourth quarter, Billerica was looking for a game-winning drive down by two points. They quickly drove the ball down the field and looked to be only ten yards away from being confident enough to attempt a field goal. After a huge hit from junior defensive end Lucas Magnifico, who was a terror recording six tackles, and also a TFL for Kornusky, Billerica was faced with a 4th down and 8.
With the student section roaring, Billerica made hearts drop as they completed the pass and had more than enough for the first down until safety Jack Fabiano punched the ball out for his second forced fumble of the game, securing Masco the game as they now were able to kneel the clock out.
“I imagine we are going surprise some people when they read the score tomorrow in the newspaper. Going forward I don’t think we are going to change a darn thing. We are going to work really hard, these kids have earned confidence by working hard and getting better every single practice,” said head coach Patrick Sheehan, “Going into this game with the coaching staff, did we think we can win, 100 percent, but at the end of the day Billerica has been doing this for all a long time and we are only two games in. There wasn’t one person who didn’t contribute tonight in some way, this was a true all-hands-on-deck team effort and I couldn’t be more proud to be the head coach of this program”.
Things couldn’t have started much better for the Chieftains and they look to keep on rolling, playing their first away game next Friday against the Revere Patriots.