RallyNorth.net

Masconomet rolls over Amesbury for eighth straight win

Friday, October, 26 By Phil Stacey
Sports editor

TOPSFIELD | The atmosphere was a festive one at Masconomet Regional High School last night.

With Homecoming Week winding down, a carnival-like atmosphere took place outside of Roberts Field. Hundreds of students, teachers and parents partook in everything from eating sausages and fried dough to trying to sink various school educators in a dunk tank.

The highlight of the evening off the field was a raging bonfire that burned brightly well into the night.

The highlight on the football field was a raging Masconomet team that seemingly did anything it wanted to against visiting Amesbury.

Scoring on their first five possessions, the mighty Chieftains kept rolling, blanking visiting Amesbury by a 35-0 count. In doing so, Masconomet stayed unbeaten at 8-0.

"Something we all want to do is go undefeated," said senior lineman Mike Nazzaro, a force at both right guard and on the defensive line last night. "It doesn't matter who we play; we prepare the same way each week. We just want to go out and hit someone and win football games."

"We go in with the same mentality every week," added teammate Clay Cleveland, a fullback who caught a 14-yard touchdown pass. "We go out and do what we need to do to get better every week. Like Mike said, we want to go undefeated."

In rolling up 393 yards of offense and only allowing the visiting Indians (3-5) inside its red zone one the entire game, Masconomet certainly looked the part of a team hungry to finish its season without a blemish.

Talking about it and doing it, however, are two different things. From here on out, it'll be nothing but slugfests for the Chieftains as they face Cape Ann League Large opponents Pentucket, Triton and North Andover to end the regular season. The Thanksgiving finale at home against their archrivals from North Andover could very well decide the league championship.

"It's pressure we put on ourselves," said Nazzaro of trying to go unbeaten," but we can handle it."

Masconomet scored on each of its first five possessions, using eight running backs and three quarterbacks as the contest was never in doubt.

Senior captain T.C. Mannetta ran for a game-high 115 yards and a pair of scores (from 1 and 13 yards) to power the offense. Sophomore quarterback Chris Splinter had another brilliant game, going 7-for-9 passing for 102 yards, including a 14-yard touchdown strike to Cleveland, and also ran for 74 yards and two TDs of his own.

"We came out and gave it our best shot. But they're a very, very good football team, and it's awfully difficult to try and come back on them when you're down 14-0 (one play into the second quarter) like we were," said Amesbury head coach Thom Connors.

Nazzaro and Cleveland gave props to teammates such as senior end John Alvarez for his nifty sideline catch in the fourth quarter; junior Drew Bunker, who stepped in admirably at tight end for injured teammate James Fahey; and senior special teamer Christian Bandereck for his bone-jarring hits on the kickoff team.