Karen Magnifico
Masco's Weidman catching a 41 yard deep ball on Billerica's head.
BILLERICA — The Masconomet Chieftains rolled past the Billerica Indians in a much-anticipated football matchup Friday, 38-22, thanks to a valiant second-half stride.
The Indians run a Wing-T offense, with few passes but effective behind a strong offensive line. As a result, it can be difficult for the defense to find the ballcarrier and get through the offensive line. Chieftains head coach Pat Sheehan had his guys practicing techniques all week to help minimize the hosts’ rushing success.
The technique the Chieftains were using the most is called root-hogging. This is where the defensive lineman just dives forward onto the ground, creating massive piles at the line of scrimmage.
“The offense they run is also very difficult to emulate in practice,” admitted Sheehan. “With as hard as the scout team worked, you still can’t really show it well. It took us some time to get our bearings, but once they understood the assignment our guys did a great job seeing it better in the second half.”
Masco, which wound up recovering two Billerica fumbles in the first half, ran a bunch of different defensive formations and rotated many defensive linemen.
“I believe the skill players got to practice a lot with this offense. However, the linemen couldn’t really practice actually root-hogging because of all the injuries. But we were able to pick it up as the game went on,” said first-year senior lineman Tony Nguyen.
In only his second-ever football game, Nguyen started at defensive tackle and played his heart out. As no surprise, he quickly learned that having 300 pounds sitting on top of you every play may not feel great.
“It was physically demanding, but mostly mentally, because there was no room for pride since every play I would get laid on by the opposing linemen,” said Nguyen.
After a few drives, Masco’s offense started cooking. Their best came off a fumble they recovered at their own 5-yard line. Marching 95 yards downfield, senior tailback Jack Fabiano (a career high 34 carries, 202 yards, 3 TDs) barreled his way in from two yards out with 26 seconds left in the first half.
On the drive, quarterback Drew Gustafson found his No. 1 target, senior receiver Cal Weidman, on what felt like a million sideline curls. This gave Masco its first lead and some momentum heading into the break.
“When our run game is going, I really don’t think there are many teams that will be able to stop us. With our starting line, along with myself and Lupo (Alex Cantalupo), we should be pretty dominant,” said Fabiano.
“We have confidence in our run game going into every week, and this week with North Andover will be no different. We’re going to work this week, and we will be ready to have a strong run game as well.”
Fabiano has now boasted a hat trick of touchdowns in each of his first two games this season.
The Chieftains’ offensive line protected Gustafson well in the pass game and was getting to the second level often in the run game. Senior guard Cam Bucchieree, among the biggest pull guards most teams will face, led the way, especially on the outside runs.
With Masco’s two-year senior captain, Nino Stefanelli, sidelined for a couple of weeks due to injury, the Chieftains have relied on big boys to step up. Among that group is guard Gabe Bilodeau, who got his first varsity start and came up huge for Masco.
“I think a big part of it was mentally preparing for the play and realizing what needed to be done,” said Bilodeau. “Once we got some movement going, our pass protection and run game were working pretty well, and we were moving the ball. We’ve been working on a lot of double teams, and that was a big part of it as well.”
Masco came out of the half like a different beast, hungrier than ever. On their opening offensive drive, Gustafson connected with Weidman with a beautiful drop in the bucket from 26 yards out. Fabiano and his linemen didn’t let up, as he picked up 102 yards on the ground on 13 carries in the second half.
“I think we started getting some energy going. We knew we had a good game ahead of ourselves, and we wanted to make the win happen,” said Bilodeau.
Gustafson and Weidman have re-established their connection from last year and strung together two really strong weeks to start the season. Gustafson was 14-for-19 for 181 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown, which came on 4th and goal in the second quarter. Weidman had eight grabs in the contest for 113 yards and a touchdown.
“The second half was a great response, a great response in all three phases of the game,” said Sheehan. “We had some selfish penalties that we got some cleaning up to do, but our guys are fighters, as they have been all last year and the first two games this year.”
Masco kicker Nicco Cefalo was an integral part of the success in this game, going five for five on extra points and drilling a 25-yard field goal.
Masco now looks to an old foe, renewing its rivalry against North Andover. This classic bash of two strong programs will take place at North Andover High School with a 6:30 kickoff Friday night.
Masconomet 38, Billerica 22
at Calabrese Stadium, Billerica
Billerica (0-1); 7; 7; 0; 8; 22
Masconomet (2-0); 7; 14; 7; 10; 38
Scoring summary
B — Jackson Gearin 20 run (Daniel Venezia kick)
M — Jack Fabiano 3 run (Nicco Cefalo kick)
B — Erik Knight 65 run (Venezia kick)
M — Drew Gustafson 3 run (Cefalo kick)
M — Fabiano 2 run (Cefalo kick)
M — Cal Weidman 26 pass from Gustafson (Cefalo kick)
M — Cefalo 25 field goal
M — Fabiano 7 run (Cefalo kick)
B — Venezia 43 run (Tim Murphy rush)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:
RUSHING: Masconomet — Jack Fabiano 34-202-3, Drew Gustafson 3-6, Alex Cantalupo 1-6.
PASSING: Masconomet — Gustafson 14-19-181-1.
RECEIVING: Masconomet — Cal Weidman 8-113-1, Fabiano 2-38, Liam Ginley 2-16, Cantalupo 1-6, Ryan Richardson 1-4.