FHS passes Crucial test

By Jim Clark

FITCHBURG -- As if to prove that it was not dead, the
Fitchburg High Football team played like a wounded animal.

The Red Raiders had every opportunity to fall apart heading into
Friday night's grudge showdown against Milford at Crocker Field.
The doldrums of last week's big loss to Nashoba, the adversity
of losing key players, the intensity of an angry opponent.

Instead, the Raiders shrugged off their problems, laughed at the 
odds, and simply rallied around themselves, getting their season
back on  track with a 23-7 win over the Scarlet Hawks.

"Ive got to give the kids and the staff a lot of credit, said
Fitchburg coach Ray Cosenza.  "People had us dead and buried.  
This is a great win for us."

The Raiders (2-1) were coming off one of  their worst losses
in recent memory, a 37-6 hammering at Nashoba last week.  Given
the fact that Milford was still burning over last year's 50-0
rout in the Division 1 Super Bowl, you know the Scarlet hawks were
looking to pin a similar hurting on the Raiders.

"I think they were too worried about the last Super Bowl," said
FHS co-captain Rob Seguin.

Milford was also keenly interested in stopping Fitchburg's running
game.  The Hawks succeeded for the most part, limiting the Raiders
to 148 yarads on the ground, including just 12 on four carries by 
starting tailback colin Burns.

Trick play works twice
 
That's Burns, the former backup quarterback who showed that he
hasn't forgotten his past.  Burns threw for a pair of touchdowns
on the halfback option play as the Raiders stunned the Hawks for
a 14-0 halftime lead.  The downside was that Burns would suffer
a dislocated elbow on a punt return midway through the second
quarter, but the Raiders had all the offense they would need.

"We lost Colin Burns, one of our leaders, but the kids pulled
together and did an unbelievable job." Cosenza said.

"Everyone gathered together and picked it up for him.  We just
hope he's all right," said jullback Dustin LeBlanc, who sparked
the Ball-control second half and had a key touchdown run early
in the third quarter to give the raiders a cushion.  The
Raiders also showed that they learned their lessons from last
week, capitalizing on turnovers and using special teams to
their advantage.

After Fitchburg's opening drive stalled on a missed field goal, 
Milford's Rayshon Payne took off for a 66 yard run on the next
play.  ONly Tom snow's tackle at the 6 prevented a touchdown,
and it was a big play after Russell Walker recovered a fumble on
the next play from scrimmage.

Turnovers critical

FHS was forced to punt, but John Santagate was hit and fumbled
again as the RAiders recovered on their own 44.  On firstdown,
Burns took a toss from quarterback David Masciarelli on the right 
pulled up and fond Snow 10 yards behind the defense streaking
down the right side.  He coasted in for the touchdown, and
Zack Sicard added the extra point for the 7-0 lead.

"Those were great calls by Paul DiGeronimo with the help of the
staff," Cosenza said.  Sicard's ensuing kickoff went out of bounds
but he simply stepped back  five yards and booted again.  This
time, the pooch kick was miffed by Kevin Donovan and recovered
by Dustin LeBlanc at the 45.

"We had a great week of practice.  It was just unbelievable.
We came together after that loss." Leblanc said.

On the next play, Masciarelli dumped a screen to Seguin and
he rumbled 50 yards to the Milford 5.  "We used a combination
of things, passing and running," said Seguin, who had a one
handed catch later in the game and a similar interception
that iced it in the fourth quarter.

Indeed, the Raiders showed their diversity with 164 passing
yards.  They went to the well one more time on third-
and-goal from the 5, this time Burns going to the left side
before finding a wide-open Dallas Heckel in the corner
of the end zone for the 14-0 lead.

"We gave him a hard time, because he used to be a quarterback
and he just doubled his touchdown passing total," Cosenza joked.

Tough loss during victory

It wasn't a laughing matter when Burns hit the turf hard after
being tripped up on a punt return by Eli Lebron and eventually
was taken to the hospital by ambulance.  But Fitchburg stepped
it up in his absence, getting some solid ground production
from Dustin LeBlanc (59 yards), Andy LeBlanc and Saul Sicard.

The Raiders also plugged the hole left by the injury of junior
Keith Leabitt (stress fracture in his left foot), as P.J.Roy did 
a fine job filling in at right tackle,  Joining Matt Bourgault, 
John Rodger, B.J.Keenan and Matt Hudson, they led the way for
Dustin LeBlanc's 17 yard run that gave FHS a 20-0 lead early
in the third quarter.

MIlford responded with its only scoring drive, a 22-yard pass
from Steve King to Santagate.  But Snow and Seguin had
fourth quarter interceptions to prevent a Milford rally, and
Zack Sicard added a 22-yard field goal with 5:30 left to close
the scoring.

"Our whole thought process coming in was we were going to be 
aggressive on offense, defense and special teams," Cosenza said.
"We went back to work and got a little nastier in practice and
worked unbelievably hard.  We've still got a long way to go."

"We pumped it up at practice.  It took the coaches to get on 
our case a litte., but we came into this game with confidence"
Seguin said. "It was an all around great effort by everyone."