Thanksgiving preview: Pingree ready to tangle with undefeated Fenwick

As Pingree coach Chris Powers sat in Woburn last Friday watching Bishop Fenwick overcome early-game struggles against Abington, he freely admitted he was rooting for the Crusaders.And why not?View season’s photos from throughout the fall season on the North Shore”If you’re from the North Shore, and I am (he played football at Masconomet), you always want the local teams to do well. I’d love to see them win and make the Super Bowl.”They did. So now, Powers gets the opportunity to go up against the very best Thursday (10) at Donaldson Field, in the first game of this inter-organizational (Pingree is not part of the MIAA) matchup. And he’s happy about that … and not happy at the same time.”Fenwick really impresses me,” Powers says. “They are terrific. And now that (Rufus) Rushins is back, that makes them even better. And I can understand, after watching them, what makes their defense so stingy too.”Fenwick’s Dave Woods admits he knows nothing about the 6-2 Highlanders, as he was too busy working up schemes to take care of Abington.”We’ll have to have a film exchange once this game’s over,” he said, “and see what we can do for Thanksgiving.”This will be the Highlanders’ first-ever Thanksgiving game. The program is in its ninth year.”We’re thrilled,” said Powers. “Growing up in this area, it’s the biggest thing in high school football, next to playing for a championship.”The Highlanders put the ball in the air way more than they keep it on the ground, Powers says. Sophomore quarterback Griffin Beal leads the area in both passing yardage and completions. His sole running back is Sal Fazio, a fullback, but Johnnie Stears also gets some touches too.Beal has a good set of receivers on which to rely, including Alex Salalayko, Justin Assad and Kyle Lenton.In fact, Powers says, when his players look across the line and see the Crusaders, they might as well be looking in the mirror The Highlanders have scored a lot of points … and so have the Crusaders.”It’s crazy,” says Woods. “I haven’t totaled things up yet and gone back in history, but we’ve blown away some school records. And we’ve played great defense, which is a key to any championship team. Some of the numbers are pretty wild. I can’t remember the last time we scored 40 in a game more than once a season … now we’re averaging it. That’s been the biggest surprise.”Coming into the season, the Crusaders looked to be the team to beat in the Catholic Central League/Large, but in Woods’ eyes, that honor belonged to Cardinal Spellman.”I thought at the beginning that our league was the strongest it’s ever been, and that was the case. You had Spellman, us, Austin Prep, St. Mary’s … all of them great teams.”And Fenwick beat them all. The Crusaders are 11-0 heading into this game.The unquestioned leader on this team is quarterback/linebacker Nick Bona.”We had a kid in the nineties, Derek Collins, who I always said was the best kid I ever coached,” said Woods. “He’s a coach for us now, and the other day I had to tell him that I think Nick’s supplanted him.”What amazes Woods about Bona is his ability to switch from instinct as a linebacker to a more cerebral mindset at quarterback.”That’s hard to do,” he said.Before he suffered an elbow injury in the team’s first playoff game against St. Mary’s, Rufus Rushins had eclipsed the 1,000 mark. He returned against Abington last Friday, put up 154.”He puts so much of himself into the game,” said Woods. “It really hurt not to see him play (against Austin Prep and Northeast Regional) in the playoffs.”There have been a slew of other Crusaders stepping up as well. Charlie Maistrellis took over the bulk of the running in Rushins’ absence, and Robbie Carillo pitched in as well.Up front, there’s two-say lineman Tyler Kaufman “who’s never in the stat sheet, but he disrupts more plays on the defensive line, and makes more blocks on offense … he really makes all our running backs look good.”Also the line are Charlie St. Pierre, Brandon DiBerardinis, Dav