Raiders leave home with another victory
 
By Jim Clark
 Sports Editor 
 
FITCHBURG -- The Fitchburg High football team has 
properly defended its turf for the 1997 season.


The Red Raideras used a strong defensive effort to post their
fourth straight win Friday night, shutting down visiting
Wachusett, 17-7 at Crocker Field.  The victory gives the
Raiders a four game win streak and pushes their record to
6-2 overall, with all of the successes coming at home.


FHS jumped out to a 14-0 lead just 6:19 into the game and
looked ready to coast.  The Mountaineers were able to shut
down several Raiders opportunities the rest of the way, but
had a hard time of their own getting going.


"I thought our defense played well, with the exception of
that one scoring drive," said FHS coach Ray Cosenza.  "Our
defense did a great job all night, and that's what we
needed."


Shut down Heppe
 
The Raiders had to be concerned about the alents of
Wachusett senior Adam Heppe, but they were able to hold him
to 23 yards on nine carries, and two catches for 16 more.
"Heppe's an outstanding back.  He's one of the best runners
we'll see all year," Cosenza said.  "They tried to give the
ball to him in a lot of ways -- they threw the ball to him,
he made some catches, he played defense.  But we felt we had
to stop him coming in."


Fitchburg got another strong game from the LeBlancs, with
Dustin carrying the big load this time.  The junior fullback
had 121 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown, while junior
Andy LeBlanc added 80 yards on 21 tries.


There was some concern early when the Mouontaineers (3-5)
tried a quick onsides kick and recovered, but they were
flagged for being offsides.  With the Raiders eventually
starting the game at their own 40, it only took seven plays
to find the end zone.  Andy LeBlanc and quarterback David
Masciarelli did all of the running work until it got to the
4, where Dustin plunged in for the first score.


Andy LeBlanc then intercepted an Andy Dickhaut pass and
retruned it to the 33, putting the Raiders in great shape.
Four plays later, Masciarelli found Colin Burns -- fresh off
injured reserve -- streaking down the right side for a
22-yard score.  Zack Sicard added his second of two extra
points, and the rout was on.


Moutaineers hang touch
Or was it?  Wachusett responded with its one scoring drive,
marching 55 yards in 10 plays before Deniz Peleven bulled in
from a yard out and Devin Briggs' kick cut the lead in half
on the first play of the second quarater.


No problem, it seemed, the way the Raiders were moving.  But
a fumble stalled one drive, and FHS drove to the 5 on fourth
down late in the half before Masciarelli missed
connecting with Rob Seguin on a dump pass, although it
appeared Seguin could have been held.


Heppe then intercepted a Masciarelli pass inside the 10 with
the half running down, and the Mountaineers were right in
it.  


"We had our chances, but we really made some mistakes
up front when we had chances in the red zone," Cosenza said.
"That's a concern of mine.  We're not doing a great job in
the red zone.  We've got to start scoring when we get the
ball down in there.  We've got the people to do it, we've
just got to do a better job."


Sicard's 25 yard field goal early in the fourth quarter
provided the Raiders with their only offense the rest of the
way.  He had a 32 yarder blocked earlier in the half, and
the Raiders had an interception and a fumble thrown in.


"Wachusett played well, they did a great job," Cosenza said.


Nonetheless the MOuntaineers managed just 12 yards total
offense in the second half.  Although their defense made
some big plays -- Craig Antocci's 54 yard interception
return being the biggest late in the game -- they couldn't
crack the end zone again.


So now the Raiders take their show on the road against
North Middlesex, Westboro and Leominster, hoping their home
cooking fuels them up for the strectch run.


"Crocker's been very good to us," Cosenza said.  "There's no
such thing as a bad win.  We beat a team that has given a
lot of teams a hard time.  They're an outstanding football
team."


"Hey, we'll take it, we're thrilled to be 6-2 now going into
our last three games."