On Football: Bishop Fenwick faces formidable Abington opponent

First of all, congratulations to Bishop Fenwick for winning the Division 5 North title with Friday?s victory over Northeast.Now … the Crusaders will have a pretty good test on their hands this Friday (at Woburn?s Connolly Stadium at 7) against South winner Abington (which beat St. Mary?s last year in the Division 4 Super Bowl).The Green Wave were the second-seeded team in Division 5 South going into the playoffs, a full point behind Old Rochester. But when it counted, they smashed Old Rochester, 44-20, last weekend in the sectional final.One of the three backs who tormented St. Mary?s last year in its loss to the Green Wave, Matthew Kilmain, is a senior this season. He was injured most of the year, but in 2012 he changed the whole complexion of the St. Mary?s game with an 80-yard touchdown run, with big defensive lineman Andres Rodriguez chasing him all the way.If Fenwick has an advantage (and it?s tough, not knowing much about the other team), it?s in the Crusaders? depth and balance. They hardly missed a beat when junior back Rufus Rushins went down. Fenwick also has Nick Bona at quarterback, and he?s been among the top players on the North Shore this season.As for the rest of the teams, now they wait until Thanksgiving. And although the games might not mean much in the big picture (the Catholic Conference is up for grabs, as it always is, because rival schools BC High-Catholic Memorial and St. John?s Prep-Xaverian chose not to play each other during the regular portion of the season), they?re still important, both to the teams and the communities.If The Prep and CM both win, St. John?s would win the league title (the Knights lost to both Xaverian and The Prep). A three-way tie would no doubt benefit Xaverian because the conference uses ratings as its tiebreaker, and the Hawks would have the edge easily.The scenario also begs the question of whether Xaverian — which has already qualified for the Division 1 Super Bowl — would go all-out on Thanksgiving and risk injury to a key starter. This was one of the fears opponents expressed in the run-up to last year?s vote on the current playoff system.Any Super Bowl-bound team playing on Thanksgiving (they?ll all be decided by then) will face the same questions.It?s just a guess, but the feeling here is that if teams involved get too far up, or too far down, early in the game, the starters will come out and the subs will be in there … which is how it always is no matter what the game.Speaking of The Prep, the Eagles can only shake their heads at the vagaries of high school competition. They scored their most electrifying win of the season at Central Catholic when Johnny Thomas made the state take notice of his talents (running back an interception 104 yards for a touchdown). Then, Everett came to The Prep and clobbered the Eagles in a game that saw Thomas? season end with a knee injury (the game was well out of hand by the time he got hurt).The kicker came Saturday when Central, whose only loss was to The Prep, stunned Everett on its own field, 20-15, to win the North title.Sometimes these things are just hard to figure.Here are what some of the area teams are playing for on Thanksgiving. In both Classical and English?s case, it?s mainly city pride. English will finish with its first losing record in the Peter Holey era while the Rams have to be a little disappointed, but a win will give them a 6-5 record. St. Mary?s has already clinched a winning record, but would certainly like that seventh victory just the same. Tech wants to get to .500. The Tigers tried mightily to clinch at least that last Saturday but came up short at Minuteman.Outside of Lynn, Marblehead will have its second go-around against Swampscott — this time at home — and would love to assuage its disappointment over Saturday?s loss to Tewksbury that ended its Super Bowl hopes. Swampscott will have to settle for revenge after being thumped by the Magicians earlier this season.Saugus and Peabody would just love