By Bill Gillman
FITCHBURG -- For an opponent, the problem with facing the Fitchburg High Red Raiders is that they can hurt you in so many ways -- all which are swift and none of which are pleasant. Fitchburg placed four players in double figures Tuesday night, en route to an 85-53 pasting of archrival Leominster High at the Academy Street Brickyard.
The win keeps Fitchburg (16-1 overall) unbeaten in the Mid-Wach A and guarantees the Red Raiders of at least a tie for the league championship heading into Friday's showdown at Milford. It is Fitchburg's eighth league title in the past 10 years. Leominster drops to 7-10 and needs to win its last three gamse to reach the playoffs.
Ricky Morales led Fitchburg with 22 points and four steals, while Ray Gonzales and Kevin Keenan added 15 apiece. Sophomore center Jon Gauvin came off the bench to drop in 12. "Ricky and Ray are both excellent offensive players and they compliment each other well," said Fitchburg coach Doug Grutchfield. "Kevin is the heart of the team. He works so hard on defense."
Leominster, which got 19 ponts from Marquis Scott and 15 from Jon Tammaro, managed to stay close for much of the first half. But a rash of Blue Devil turnovers helped Fitchburg take a 47-27 lead into intermission. The Red Raiders then settled matters with a 19-5 run early in the second half. "This team needs to push the ball up the floor the way we did tonight. But you can't make mistakes agaist a team like Fitchburg," said Leominster coach Ron Mazzarferro. "Its not that we weren't intense because we were."
Usually a slow-starting team, Fitchburg bolted to a 22-7 lead behind the hot hand of Morales, who had 13 points in the first half. As Morales cooled off, Scott heated up. The junior forward had nine points in a 14-4 run which helped Leominster close to 26-21 with 6:12 left in the half.
But Fitchburg opened the lead back up as Keenan (eight assists, five steals) began to take charge. He drained a three-pointer to make it 33-23 and later made consecutive steals leading to fast break hoops as the Red Raiders closed the half with a 9-0 run.
"Ever since the Holy Name game, which we shouldn't have lost, we've come out every game and played like is was against Holy Name." said Gonzales. "There's always someone to pick up the slack when the top player is off." Gonzales (10 rebounds) took over in the second half, scoring nine points in the first eight minutes after the break.