Swampscott football foe is very grounded

The Medfield High football team may be called the Warriors, but they’re known throughout the town as the Big Blue.In fact, coach Mike Slason said, “There’s a sign in our gym that says ‘Welcome to Big Blue country’.”That might create a bit of confusion Saturday when the Warriors tackle Swampscott (11:30 a.m. – note the time change) at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough in the state Division 3 Super Bowl.”It’ll be Big Blue vs. Big Blue,” said Slason. “Except we’re Columbia University blue and they’re Penn State blue. So you can tell the difference that way.”You might tell the difference by the way they play, too – although after Tuesday night’s 33-7 victory over Arlington Catholic that might not be so true either.The Warriors play ball control. They’re going to try to run, run, run through Swampscott with their four-pronged back attack while Swampscott – unless things get bogged down the way they were Monday – will try to take advantage of the Peter Kinchley-Justin Mitchell arial connection.”Actually, we mixed it pretty well offensively,” Slason said. “We’ll run a some double wing, ball control ? we’ll go into different packages ? the Power I.”And we run all the offenses with the same personnel, so they can’t watch the personnel changes as they come on or off the field.”Slason says the Tri Valley League representatives – 10-2 coming into the game – have a “slew of good running backs,” including lead back Drew Donnelly and Peter Gumas, both juniors; and Mark Hoscovsky and Harry Bodozian, both of them seniors.”Each one of them gives a different look,” said Slason. Donnelly, at 6-3, 200-pounds, is the team’s go-to guy, Slason says.”He’s quick, but he can run you over too,” Slason says.Gumas, a fullback, is more of a power runner at 5-11, 200 pounds.”He’s a bruiser,” Slason said. “He’s a pretty big kid.” Hoscovsky also plays fullback, but he has the speed to run both inside and outside – something that keeps defenses honest, Slason says.Bodosian, the smallest of the four at 5-9, 160, is used a lot when the Warriors run sweeps.”We do a lot of pulling,” Slason said. “He gets behind those big guards and tackles and you cant’ see him. He’s a tough little runner.”None of the four have run for 1,000 yards, but each has at least 300, with Donnelly topping off at 800.Tying it all together is senior quarterback Luke Swain, whose ability to hide the ball and to handle it deftly, makes him a strength even if he doesn’t throw many passes.”He’s a pretty good passer,” Slason said. “But he’s a good runner too. He’s the type of kid that most teams might ignore, but he made a great run against Abington (in Tuesday’s semifinal) that set up our first touchdown.”Slason’s line is anchored by guard Mike Welch and tackle Andrew Collins, and the Warriors run a lot of their sweeps behind them.”Though,” Slason says, “we put them in different situations. Our goals, on offense, is to set the defense so that it can’t make changes to accommodate what we’re doing.”Slason says the Warrior defense is similar.”Again, it doesn’t really matter what we’re seeing offensively,” he said. “We change our look a lot. Of course, sometimes we get burned. There are times where we’ll be in the wrong defense for what they’re running.”Medfield hadn’t won a Tri Valley title for 37 years until the Warriors pulled it off last year. They liked it so much they did it again this year.”I think people looked at us as though we’d be a game where they’d have to play hard,” Slason said. “I don’t think anybody thought we’d be where we are now, though.”