St. Mary’s, Fenwick to play next Thanksgiving Eve

St. Mary’s and Bishop Fenwick have long-standing rivalries in just about every sport, but the intensity that accompanies the two Catholic Central League teams when they play each other in football during the regular season has just been ratcheted up a few notches.
St. Mary’s and Bishop Fenwick entered into an agreement Wednesday that will result in the two teams playing their regular-season matchup on Thanksgiving Eve rather than earlier in the season when the teams are vying for a spot in the playoffs.
The scheduling change became feasible Tuesday when St. Mary’s and Lynn Tech mutually agreed to end their Thanksgiving eve series that started in 1994.
That opened the door for the two Catholic schools to work out their plan. They will play Thanksgiving eve 2015 at Manning Field. The following year they will play the night before Thanksgiving at Bishop Fenwick.
Tech is still looking for a Thanksgiving opponent for next year.
?It was a good rivalry with Tech,” St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin said. “It was a unique thing with the four Lynn schools playing each other on Thanksgiving, but this was a great opportunity for us to play one of our biggest rivals. It?s a natural fit.”
St. Mary’s and Bishop Fenwick playing each other on Thanksgiving (or Thanksgiving eve) is nothing knew. Bishop Fenwick football coach Dave Woods said the two teams started playing on Thanksgiving in 1964, only two years after Fenwick opened, and the game continued until 1991. During that time the game was played at the old Manning Bowl on Thanksgiving eve when St. Mary’s was the home team, and on Thanksgiving morning when it was Fenwick’s home game.
St. Mary’s began playing Tech the night before Thanksgiving in 1994. In recent years the games had become fairly lopsided. The Spartans won 44-0 this year.
Woods said he and the Bishop Fenwick community are excited to be playing St. Mary’s again on Thanksgiving.
?St. Mary’s was our original Thanksgiving Day rival,” Woods said. “It’s great to get back to that. It’s nice that it worked out schedule wise.”
Bishop Fenwick has had a variety of different Thanksgiving rivals over the years including Bellingham, Ayer, Whittier Tech, Malden Catholic, Austin Prep and, most recently, Pingree. Although they played on Thanksgiving Day against Pingree, Woods was open to playing the game at night in 2016 when it’s at Fenwick.
?We played Austin Prep at night (the night before Thanksgiving) a few years ago. We had a great turnout. It was a great atmosphere,” he said.
The Thanksgiving game will count toward Catholic Central League standings and will be the only regular-season game scheduled between the two schools, excluding a possible playoff match. Woods said if the past few years are any indication, there’s a good chance the league title — either St. Mary’s or Fenwick has won the title the last three years — could be decided on Thanksgiving.
?Thanksgiving’s a special game and now its a little more special for both schools,” he said.
St. Mary’s athletic director Jeff Newhall said it’s unfortunate the game against Tech is not going to go on, but the timing was good for St. Mary’s. He said pressure was mounting from alumni and benefactors to get back to playing Bishop Fenwick on Thanksgiving.
Durgin said he likes playing the game on Wednesday night because it’s the only show in town and that can make for a good crowd.?It may bring back some alumni who, when they were in school, Fenwick and St. Mary’s played every Thanksgiving,” Durgin said. “I think you’re really going to tie the alumni and past classes to a new era. I think it’s come full circle.”