{"id":40578,"date":"2022-09-22T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=40578"},"modified":"2022-09-22T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:01:00","slug":"wachusett-football-blanks-visiting-fitchburg-for-seasons-first-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/09\/22\/wachusett-football-blanks-visiting-fitchburg-for-seasons-first-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Wachusett football blanks visiting Fitchburg for season\u2019s first victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell <\/b>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 After falling to Franklin High, the Wachusett Regional High School varsity football\u2019s perennial nemesis, one week prior, the green and white took to the field Sept. 16 for a home matchup with Fitchburg High seeking their first victory in the early goings of the 2022 season.<\/p>\n

It all played out perfectly for the Mountaineers, who put this one in the win column early, scoring 40 unanswered first half points while keeping the Red Raiders off the scoreboard due to inexorable play by the Wachusett defense. Wachusett (1-1) now moves forward with a Sept. 23 home matchup against Minnechaug Regional.<\/p>\n

The game against Fitchburg was a team victory for sure, but one that highlighted senior quarterback Tucker McDonald\u2019s skill and toughness in completing all 12 of his passes on the night for 189 yards and five touchdowns. The UConn-bound McDonald stayed in for the first half only, with the outcome sealed and the victory assured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bounce-back week for us, but we have to put Fitchburg behind us and focus on this week, so it was good we got the win,\u201d said McDonald, widely considered to be one of the top high school quarterbacks in New England. \u201cAll the hours that we\u2019ve spent working out in the weight room, running routes, it\u2019s all worth it to come out here with the Badlands (WRHS student cheering section) and the fans cheering. It\u2019s just awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe receivers and I worked really hard in the offseason throwing routes. I also worked hard with some quarterback coaches. Coach Tommy Guy out in Springfield and Mike McCarthy are all well-known guys. They\u2019ve really helped me to develop into the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big thing for us coming off the loss a week ago,\u201d said running back Aiden McGeary, who recorded a pair of sacks on defense. \u201cWe want to build momentum and carry that into week three. It\u2019s hard work, but we love it. We love the whole group and all get along. To come out here on a Friday and get a big win feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wachusett wasted no time getting on the board, executing a 10-play, 55 yard drive that resulted in an 8-yard touchdown to a leaping Grayson Baker. Ben Dominick\u2019s PAT was successful putting the hosts up 7-0.<\/p>\n

From there it was a virtual avalanche of touchdowns. Joe Cappabianca broke free of defenders and carried the ball 13 yards for the score, followed by McDonald\u2019s TD pass for 14 yards to Frankie Smith that lifted Wachusett to a 20-0 first quarter advantage.<\/p>\n

Cappabianca would notch his second score of the game early in the second quarter, a thing of beauty. McDonald rolled right on the snap and launched a perfectly placed pass into senior teammate Cappabianca\u2019s arms in the corner of the end zone.<\/p>\n

Next up would be Arturo Johnson, who broke free from Red Raider defenders and snagged a 67-yard TD pass to put Wachusett up 33-0. Cole Carelli finished off a 30-yard drive by finding the end zone from 2 yards out to put the Mountaineers up 40-0 at halftime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some athletes that make plays for me that make me look better and make the team look better,\u201d said McDonald modestly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked a lot about looking ahead and not behind (after the Franklin loss),\u201d said WRHS head coach Mike Dubzinski. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to improve, and I said to the kids let\u2019s just keep improving. Blocking, tackling, defense, offense \u2014 let\u2019s improve every aspect of the game, and we did. We had good practices this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to play a lot of kids tonight,\u201d Dubzinski said, referring to his backups, who were on the field for the entire second half. \u201cThe players have tomorrow off. We\u2019ll watch film on Sunday, and we\u2019ll be back on the practice field Monday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 After falling to Franklin High, the Wachusett Regional High School varsity football\u2019s perennial nemesis, one week prior, the green and white took to the field Sept. 16 for a home matchup with Fitchburg High seeking their first victory in the early goings of the 2022 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}