Fenwick football wins D5 North title

PEABODY – The wonderful versatility of Bishop Fenwick’s offense was on display Friday night and Northeast Regional was powerless to stop it as the Crusaders rolled to the Division 5 North championship, 43-6, at Donaldson Field.Next up for Fenwick is South champion Abington (9-1) of the South Shore Large in a State semifinal next weekend at a site and time to be determined. Abington rolled over Old Rochester, 47-20, last night.The Sectional title is Fenwick’s first State level championship since winning back-to-back Super Bowls in 1999 and 2000. In the final analysis, the Crusaders (10-0) were simply faster across the board and the previously unbeaten Golden Knights (9-1) simply never saw what hit them.”I’ll tell you what, this was a total team effort. We had a back-up quarterback (Mike Campatelli) playing defensive tackle and other guys out of position but everybody picked each other up,” said coach Dave Woods. “We had a short week to prepare but the guys did a phenomenal job.”Senior quarterback Nick Bona set Fenwick off and running with touchdown strikes of 50 and 51 yards to fellow senior Eric Razney that staked the Crusaders to a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter. On each occasion Razney split wide left, sprinted through Northeast’s basic zone coverage and was open by 10 yards. The first score came in the final minute of the first quarter, the second with 4:07 left in the half on the first play after Fenwick’s David Hurley stuffed a Northeast 4th-and-7 attempt at the Fenwick 49.”We worked on that play all week in practice and we sort of knew we could get two or three touchdowns with it. We’d used it before but got away from it the last couple of weeks playing the same teams. This was a new team and they hadn’t seen it,” Bona said.”It’s easy to coach when you have that kind of speed and it’s hard to defend,” Wood added, smiling.On Northeast’s first play after Razney’s second score, senior back Christian Perez burst into the Fenwick secondary for a 12-yard gain then lost his grip on the football. Fenwick’s Coleman Hebert pounced on the bobble at the Northeast 37.Three plays later, on 3rd-and-13, Charlie Maistrellis swept left and sprinted 40 untouched yards with 2:12 left in the half. Kyle Russell tacked on the third of his five PATs for a 21-0 bulge at the break.Matt Renzulli’s punt block produced a safety for a 23-0 lead midway through the third period. The Crusaders set up shop at the Northeast 37 after the ensuing free kick and Robert Carrillo eventually rolled in from 10 yards for a 30-0 lead.Maistrellis’s 55-yard punt return stretched it to 37-0 with 1:22 remaining the period.Josh Niconchuk’s returned a fumble 20 yards to the Northeast five-yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter. Lining up in the backfield, junior lineman Brandon DeBerardinis scored from a yard out two plays later for a 43-0 edge.Northeast avoided the shutout on Kevin Rosado’s 25-yard run against the Crusaders’ second defense with 2:39 to play.”We were 3-8 two years ago. As freshmen and sophomores, these juniors and seniors set some goals and they’ve worked very hard to attain them,” said Woods.”We’re all athletic, we all have skills and we have it all going right for us,” added Razney.