Winchester went into Walt Roberts field on Friday night as underdogs, but a relentless offense led them to a win, 36 to 29.
Throughout the night, it was always a one-score game, with the momentum constantly shifting.
Overall, Winchester was the more dominant team Friday night with their heavy run game tearing up the Masco defense.
After an interception off a deflection, the Red and Black opened the scoring with an easy 8-yard receiving touchdown.
Winchester’s defense was by no means great either as Masco’s run game was also having its way. Shortly after the Red and Black went up 7-0, junior receiver Cal Weidman answered with an unreal grab from 6 yards out from junior quarterback Drew Gustafson, showing off his hands of glue to tie the game.
Weidman has bested the man on the other side of the line from him all season, grabbing his fourth touchdown in these first four games.
Winchester had much more time of possession with the football in the first half and went into the break up 21-15 after a 9-yard touchdown run right before the half.
The Masco defense made some huge stops down the line, especially when Winchester drove into Masco territory. Junior linebacker Connor Mitchell was electric for the Chieftains, making many tackles in the backfield and even on special teams.
“I was just trying to do my job and do what the coaches tell us. If you read the [offensive] guards, they’ll take you right to the play,” said Mitchell.
Masco junior running back Jack Fabiano punched in rushing touchdowns of 18 yards and 5 yards out. Entering this game, Fabiano was 2nd in total points scored in the north shore then added two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion on top of that tonight.
The second half had each offense going touchdown for touchdown with four lead changes.
On fourth and one, down by six points in the fourth quarter, senior Arbri Halilaj was shot out of a cannon, taking an outside handoff 57 yards to the crib. Junior kicker Nicco Cefalo drilled the extra point putting Masco up by one point.
It seemed that every time Halilaj touched the ball, a huge play for Masco broke loose.
With two and a half minutes left on a dwindling clock in the fourth quarter, Winchester had the ball on their own 30-yard-line, down by a point.
A wide receiver screen on the second play of the drive was taken all the way down to Masco’s 2 yard-line after Halilaj tracked him down.
On the ensuing play, Winchester silenced the Masco crowd by running for a touchdown and converting the two-point conversion to go up by seven points.
In the final minute, Masco wasn’t able to get that touchdown they needed and the clock hit double zeros.
Despite catches from junior receivers Weidman, Lucas Magnifico, Ryan Richardson, and Liam Ginley, the passing game wasn’t there for the Chieftains on Friday. Masco’s first two games consisted of throwing the pig skin all over the field, but that wasn’t necessarily the case Friday night.
“The run game was alright tonight and the line did okay. Fabiano and our receivers played well. We need to fix lots of things this week before a good Peabody team,” said Gustafson. “We need to work very hard in practice this week and not come in flat. We must be ready for the game and trust our offense.”
Masco’s offensive line had some fantastic drives, opening holes in the run game, but is going to need to be more consistent facing the biggest line they’ll have to block so far this year in Peabody next week.
“As a team, we need to work harder and grow from this loss. We need to focus on the little things this week and look at the minor details of the game using that to improve,” said senior lineman Jackson McGee.
The Tanners are a big, solid team that Masco will take on in Peabody next Friday night. In order to grab a huge Northeast Conference (NEC) win, they’ll need to do some cleaning up this week.
“We are going to watch the film, correct the mistakes, put together a fantastic game plan, and work hard for Friday night,” said head coach Patrick Sheehan.
“We didn’t play well for four quarters, but we fought for four quarters. Jack Fabiano had another stellar game on both sides of the ball and I thought our offensive line did a nice job in the second half. Unfortunately, I think our tackling took a step backward; I was really impressed with our tackling the first three weeks, but this week we didn’t bring our legs and just thought they’d go down.”
Masco now has their first loss but still boasts a strong record of 3-1. This game on Friday, though, will have huge implications for the top dog in the NEC.