After a tough loss last week against Winchester, Masco stepped onto the field dialed in and starving on Friday night, leading to a win against the Tanners, 29-7.
To say Masco came out firing would be an understatement. On the opening possession, Masco drove the ball all the way down the field for a junior Jack Fabiano 7 yard-touchdown run, set up by two nice catches from junior Liam Ginley to cap off an eight-minute drive.
Ginley had himself a day on both sides of the ball tonight. Ginley had an unbelievable catch on 4th down on Masco’s first drive. In total, Ginley had three receptions for around 75 yards, a new career high. Ginley was lockdown at cornerback and had some nice deflections and tackles.
Junior Lucas Magnifico delivered what looked to be Masco’s biggest hit of the season, setting the tone on the kickoff. Junior outside linebacker Ryan Richardson provided what some would say was Masco’s second-biggest hit of the season to the same ball carrier late in the fourth quarter, coming up on a quick out route. Magnifico and Richardson both had fantastic defensive games and are two players who’ll make sure the ball carrier feels their tackle.
Masco’s offense was phenomenal tonight in all aspects of the game and throughout all quarters. The coaches have harped on not letting the foot off the gas and always play like the score is 0-0 which is exactly what Masco did.
Peabody has the biggest line of any team in the Northeast Conference (NEC), weighing over an average of 300 pounds, but they didn’t phase the Chieftain trenchmen in the slightest, as Masco’s line won the battles all night long.
“We were able to get low, make our double teams, and get out to the next level,” said senior center Kaden Mason. “They weren’t as strong as we expected and when we stayed low, we were able to put their lineman on the ground.”
Mason has played all five games at center for the Chieftains and is a bigger leader on the offensive line. The offensive line was awesome Friday night, making running backs Fabiano and senior Arbri Halilaj’s lives much easier.
The best player in the game came as a surprise to no one, with Fabiano adding to his monster season. Fabiano ran for touchdowns of 7,1, and 24 yards, adding a two-point conversion on the ground as well.
“I saw so many holes today. They had some big linemen but I just kept beating them,” he said.
Not only did Fabiano run for three touchdowns, but at the end of the first quarter, he took an outside handoff and threw the ball to junior receiver Cal Weidman to put Masco up 14-0 at that point.
“I knew that was going to be open. We ran through them that whole drive so it was wide open. It was great to get a passing touchdown,” said Fabiano.
Fabiano is making a fantastic case to win the NEC MVP, and leads all North Shore players in rushing attempts, yards, and points scored heading into Friday’s game.
Masco kicker junior Nicco Cefalo continues to prove to be an absolute weapon for the Chieftains. His kickoffs couldn’t have been any better, leaving Peabody with awful field position on many occasions.
The defense for Masco was stout, holding an extremely talented Tanner offense to just seven points. The dual attack off the edge of Magnifico and senior captain Cash Kornusky was on fire. Konursky seemed to be living in the backfield with multiple sacks and tackles for loss (TFL).
“The coaches drew it up really well. They essentially just gave us a blueprint. If he steps one way, you are going in the B gap, and if he steps the other way you are pushing into that C gap,” said Kornusky. “The bull-and-pull was clicking on that lineman, he wasn’t too steady on his feet. I just worked my way in there as I could.”
The Masco coaching staff’s game plan was outstanding for this game. One key factor in the run game was offensive coordinator Neil Weidman sending Halilaj on many jet sweep motions since Peabody would be on the lookout for that play, having watched the film of Halilaj taking one 57 yards to the crib last week against Winchester. Weidman would then give him the ball sometimes and have him fake the others, which puts defenders in a pickle and makes the defensive ends question their assignments.
“It was an awesome win for the program. A complete, physical, and violent game, and now we’ve shown the ability to do that for all four quarters. An unrelenting violence was really good to see from us. A lot of guys played well, a true team win tonight,” said head coach Patrick Sheehan. “On offense, our game plan was to give the ball to Fabs [Fabiano], and on defense the key was movement. We were slanting and twisting to take advantage of our speed.”
Masco went into this game as underdogs but surely didn’t play like them. Watching Masco control this football game over a great team is definitely going to scare some future opponents. Masco continues to contend for the top spot in the NEC and is now the seventh-ranked team in division three, which they look to bump up on senior night against Danvers on October 11.