MINUTEMEN ROLL OVER AILING WINCHESTER
Lexington, MA. 9/28/17. As the redundant Yogi Berra said, it could have been “déjà vu all over again.”
Just like last year, Thursday night’s Lexington High School football match-up against Winchester was, once again, the classic “trap” game for the hosts. Same team. Same situation with the Minutemen coming off a huge win against powerful Reading the week before, ranked 6th in Eastern Mass, feeling good about themselves and overwhelming favorites to extend their record to 4-0.
Last year in this very situation Lexington barely escaped a calamitous upset at Winchester.
This year?
There was never a doubt as the Minutemen frolicked (Frelicked?) on the friendly grounds of Harold Crumb Field in a 42 – 19 runaway over the sickness stricken Sachems.
“Oh yeah. The kids remembered last year, and we reminded them all week,” said Lexington mentor George Peterson. “We made very sure that we wouldn’t have any kind of let down this time.”
To be fair, Winchester was seriously depleted. Their solid senior quarterback, Liam Fitzpatrick is out indefinitely with a knee injury, and some 15 other players, many of them starters, were stricken with the very contagious hand, foot and mouth virus.
“That’s not the real Winchester we played tonight,” allowed Peterson. “What I saw on film was a tough team that could do some things to hurt us. If Fitzpatrick plays that’s a good football game.”
From the beginning the Minutemen were clicking on both sides of the ball. The offense behind the usual suspects, senior QB Sal Frelick, senior running back Ben Quint and junior wide out Tony Bianchi, scored on six of their seven first half possessions.
Meanwhile, the defense pitched a shut-out for the first half and forced three Winchester turnovers on two interceptions (one from senior corner Jack Marcin, one from Quint) and one fumble recovery. Quint returned his midfield interception all the way to the Sachems end zone.
By halftime Quint had scored twice on a 30-yard run and his interception return. Frelick had run 7 times for 129 yards and 3 touchdowns and Bianchi had slammed the door with an electrifying 44-yard dash on the jet sweep around the right side. 42-0. There would be no letdown on this night.
Instead, it was a rout, and Peterson was able to sit his starters for the entire second half ensuring that the Minutemen will be a very healthy 4-0 as they get ready to host Arlington next Saturday at 2pm.