By Jim Clark
FITCHBURG -- It may have been a humid night at the beginning of the fall season, but Friday night the Fitchburg High football team certainly was glad to see the arrival of Snow.Junior Tom Snow returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown with 25 seconds left, turning the momentum and stunning visiting St. Peter-Marian, 20-12 at Crocker field.
The Guardians had just tied the game on Joe D'Ambra's 11 yard run with 40 sesconds to go, when Snow took the kick and burst up the right sideline nearly untouched for the score.
Followed his blockers
"They put up the walls. I was running up the sideline and saw a giant hole," said Snow. "Everyone on that kickoff return did a great job.""What a great win to have," Said FHS coach Ray Cosenza. "I think everone was expeccting both teams to be down, but both teams showed what a tradition they have, and we have."
It was a rematch of two teams that won their respective Super Bowl titles last year. Fitchburg rolled to an easy victory here in last year's season opener, but this one turned out to be everything that was expected of last year's encounter. And perhaps more.
"We came into this game to win this game," said senior tailback and co-captain Colin Burns, adding that the RAiders didn't believe they needed to prove their worth after last year's outstanding season. "Its a great confidence booster going into the season."
Burns led the typically balanced Fitchburg attack with 91 yards on 14 caries, adding a second half touchdown. Junior fullback Dustin LeBlanc had 61 tough yards, while junior quarterback David Masciarelli was solid running the option and had a few key connections wiith senior tight end Rob Seguin.
Both teams set the tone by trading first quarter scores, the Raiders knocking one in on their first possession after forcing the Guardians to punt. Burns had several key runs, including an 18 yarder that set up Steve Bean's 2-yard plunge for the 6-0 lead.
The Guardians came right back and tied it, going for it on fourth and 6 from the 32 and breadking it as Bill Hinson swept the left side, then cut back right and outraced the defense for the score.
Offense starts clicking
It stayed that way into the intermission, but Fitchburg used a long drive to take the lead again early in the second half. Burns and LeBlanc once again shouldered the load, with Burns getting a couple of key gains on smooth pitches form Masciarelli, while BeBlanc was chewing it up inside. Burns' 4 yard score gave the Raiders a 12-6 advantage."The blocking was great in the ssecond half," said LeBlanc. "All I had to do was run stright ahead and beat out the middle line-backer. We picked it up."
But St. Peter-Marian picked it up on defense in the final quarter, with Tony Rucho stuffing Mmasciarelli on fourth down to give the Guardians the ball on their own 40 with 5:38 left. Led by D'Ambra, they swiftly marched down field until D'Ambra drove off tackle left for 11 yards and the score to tie it with 40 seconds left.
St. Peter-Marian went for the kick to take the lead, but Nick Scavone's boot was low, and it probably wouldn't have mattered much with the Fitchburg defense well into the backfield on the play. "We knew we had to block the extra point," said Seguin, a standout from his linebacker spot all game. "We had a great surge."
Even more critical was the kick that followed, settling into Burns' hands at the18-yard line and he did the rest from there.
"I think I made a mistake at the end. We could have squibbed the ball, but they had four timeouts left," said Guardians coach Owen Kilcoyne. "We had a chance to win it with two minutes to go."
"We've always had some great backs, some breakaway backs," Cosenza said. "We didn't know we had that, but Tommy Snow showe us we did."