Gloucester repeats as Division 1 Super Bowl champion

FOXBOROUGH – The Gloucester High football team can now take its rightly place as one of the top football programs in Massachusetts.On Saturday night at Gillette Stadium, the Fishermen completed a four-year run that would be the envy of nearly every program in Massachusetts. Joe Avila threw a pair of touchdown passes while the Fishermen defense slammed the door on Bridgewater-Raynham for a second straight season in the Division 1A Super Bowl with a 34-13 win over the Trojans.”This is really such a great group of kids,” Gloucester coach Paul Ingram said. “They really have had the pressure on them all season and they’ve handled it so well. I give them all the credit in the world for that.”It is the third unbeaten season for Gloucester in four years and their seniors go out with an astounding 50-2 record and on a 26-game win streak. The last time Gloucester lost was at Gillette two years ago in the Division 2A Super Bowl to Duxbury.”I really haven’t thought about it much to be honest,” Ingram said. “We’ve just tried to go one game at a time. But it really is pretty amazing to do something like this.”Gloucester (13-0) jumped in front midway through the opening quarter when Avila hit wingback Brandon Cusamano for a 30-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead. B-R was forced to punt on the next possession but Jordan Shairs muffed the kick to give the Trojans life.B-R took advantage as Mike Chicoyne took Billy Zolga’s screen pass 22 yards to the endzone. The PAT was missed and Gloucester led 7-6 after a quarter.The Fishermen extended the lead in the second quarter as Avila converted a fourth down inside the Trojan 20 with a pass to Adam Philpott that got the ball to the five. Shairs bulled in for his 31st touchdown of the season moments later to up the lead to 14-6.Cusamano’s blind side sack of ZOlga with 1:53 left in the half led to a fumble and Gilbert Brown’s five yard run with 39 seconds left that made it 21-6 at the break.”Our defense has done that all season,” Ingram said. “And the last two games, they’ve played about as well as they can.”Cusamano’s five yard run early in the third quarter on a double reverse gave Gloucester a 19 point lead at 27-6. B-R, however, wasn’t done yet as Zolga capped a long drive with a touchdown run that made it 27-13 heading to the fourth quarter.Shairs, however, stole all the momentum back as he rumbled 55 yards to the Trojan 22 early in the fourth quarter. One play later, Avila hit a wide open Mike Tomaino for a 19-yard touchdown and Gloucester was on its way to another title.