We weren't concerned about the Super Bowl, said Fitchburg coach Ray Cosenza. "We wanted to win this game. This is the biggest game on our schedule."
Roy rushed for 191 yards and scored two touchdowns on offense while intercepting a pass and playing an all around great game of defense. "Roy played a tremendous football game on both sides of the ball," said Cosenza. "He's been great on offense all year, but the way he picked it up on defense today was impressive. He saved his best for this game.
The senior running back/defensive back led the Red Raiders defense as they held the potent Leominster offense to just one touchdown while forcing four offensive turnovers. The other two scores came on kickoff returns by Scott Frederick and Richie Durasowicz, while a fifth turnover came on a freak bounce during another kichkoff.
"To hold an offense like Leominster's to just one touch down takes a great effort, and that's what we got form our defense today," said Cosenza.
"We really hurt ourselves with the turnovers," said Leominster coach John Dubzinski. "I thought the kids played their hearts out, even when we fell behind 28-7. They never quit and played hard right through the final play." Leominster trailed 28-13 at the half, but had two chances early in the third quarter to climb back into the game. On its first possession of the second half, the Blue Devils drove to the Fitchburg 21, but the drive was stopped when Nico Mazzaferro's pass was picked off by Roy at the 6.
Fitchburg had a lot of trouble moving the football in the second half, accumulating just 62 yards of total offense. "We really stepped it up on defense in the second hallf," said FRatturelli. "We knew if we could hold them in the second half, we might be able to come back. But we didn't take advantage of our chances."
Leominster had one final shot, but Rich DeMar picked off a Mazzaferro pass at the 9-yard line with a minute to go. "We had our chances, we just didn't take advantage of them," said FRatturelli. "We played a good second half, but we feel too far behind early. If we could have come to play in the first half, maybe we win this game."
"We just fell behind by too much, too early," agreed Dubzinski. "But our kids didn't quit. They fought and fought and fought and nearly came back. We're really proud of how hard our kids played today."
Both offenses struggled in the early going, as neither team scored in the first 11 minutes of the contest. The final minute of the first quarter however, featured a flury of action.
Leominster came back immediately, as Frederick picked up the ensuing kickoff at his own 25 and shot straight through the middle 75 yards for a touchdown. Steve Nowokunski booted the extra point to give Leominster its only lead at 7-6.
On Fitchburg's first play from scrimmage after Leominster's kickoff, Roy broke through the left side of the line and raced 78 yards to make it 12-7. Roy also caught the conversion pass to make it 14-8 at the end of the first.
"That was a wild series of plays," said Cosenza. " I don't remember anything like that happening before."
The weirdness didn't stop there. In the ensuing kickoff, Morales squibbed one that struck Nick Zekow in the shins and bounced right back to Morales and gave Fitchburg the ball. The Red Raiders capitalized, scoring eight plays later when Gates hit Roy for a 13-yard touchdown. Gates hit Colin Burns for the conversion to make it 22-7. The key play on the drive came on a fourth and seven from the Leominster 34 when Fred Robinson took a direct snap and ran for the first down.
"That hurt us," said Dubzinski. "The defense did a nice job after the kickoff and then to get burned on a fake hurt."
What hurt even more was another fumble two plays after the Roy touchdown. Fratturelli had the ball strpped from his hands and Morales pounced on it at the Leominster 40. Gates and Roy then took turns running up the middle to move the ball to the 19 before Gates hit Seguin for his second touchdown of the game -- this time for 19 yards with under 30 seconds to play in the half.
"It was supposed to be a smash, but it was wide open," said Seguin. "If Chris wasn't such a dominating force, that play wouldn't have worked."
"We were watching what defense they were in," said Cosenza. "As soon as we saw the six-man front, we knew nobody could cover the tight end. Especially if we put Chris in motion."
"I thought we had him, but once he got into the open I knew he was gone," said Cosenza. "That took away some of our momentum. We told the kids at the half not to worry about it. We still had the lead and as long as we kept playing defense, we'd be in good shape. That's just what we did in the second half.