WINTHROP — The Winthrop football team may have had to wait an extra week to start its season, but the Vikings made up for that with solid play in all three phases as they notched a 28-0 win over Northeastern Conference foe Saugus Friday night at Miller Field.
“Obviously as a head football coach, you want to be strong in all three phases and we were able to do that (Friday),” said Winthrop coach Jon Cadigan. “I absolutely tip my cap to Saugus for only bringing 20 guys and they were all tough kids. The score definitely wasn’t indicative of how hard they played. We have plenty of things to work on, but we’re always happy with a win.”
Quarterback Dillon Doherty had a big game in his debut with Winthrop after transferring from Everett, rushing for 74 yards and two touchdowns while also completing 5-of-7 passes for 26 yards. Running back Bobby Hubert rushed for 22 yards and also threw a 29-yard touchdown to receiver Mikey Chaves.
For Saugus, who only brought 17 players to the field after half of its team was forced into a quarantine period, it was an uphill battle the whole game.
“We came here with 17 guys and we knew it was going to be a tall task against a strong team, but our guys wanted to play,” said Saugus coach Steve Cummings. “We had to avoid all mistakes if we wanted to keep this one close and we weren’t able to do that, but I couldn’t be prouder of my guys for the effort they put out there. They could have said on Tuesday that they didn’t want to play shorthanded, but they stepped up and worked hard until the final whistle.”
Running back Sal Franco rushed for 66 yards in the loss for Saugus, while quarterback Donovan Clark showed flashes of strong play in just his second varsity start under center.
The Vikings got things started right away after receiving the opening kickoff. On the very first offensive play of the season, Doherty took a quarterback sneak off the right tackle and broke through a hole for a 60-yard touchdown run to put Winthrop ahead 6-0 just 14 seconds into the game.
The score remained there until the final minute of the second quarter, as both teams went on extended drives (Saugus had a 13-play drive that lasted nearly nine minutes and Winthrop had an 11-play drive that lasted slightly more than eight minutes).
Finally, the Vikings got the ball back with 3:27 to go in the half and started moving up the field. Behind a couple of runs each from Doherty and Chris Ferrara, Winthrop moved into the red zone. That set up Doherty for another sneak, and he punched one in from two yards out to put the Vikings ahead 14-0 going into the halftime break.
Winthrop took advantage of a big defensive play early in the third quarter, forcing and recovering a fumble deep in Saugus territory with about nine minutes to go. On the very first play, Doherty handed the ball off to Hubert, who then turned around and fired a 29-yard touchdown pass to Chaves to put the Vikings up 21-0.
Winthrop then forced a three-and-out on the ensuing possession, with Saugus needing to punt from inside its own end zone. The punt was fielded by Hubert, who proceeded to take the ball 33 yards to the house and make it 28-0 Vikings.
Saugus (0-2) travels to Marblehead next Saturday (2).
“We’re going to get 25 guys back on Monday, so that’ll be nice,” Cummings said. “We were having trouble even practicing this past week because of our numbers. So we’re going to get back at it, move forward and prepare for what’s going to be another tough game against Marblehead.”
Winthrop (1-0) plays on the road at Salem Saturday (4).
“In normal circumstances we’d just be wrapping up our third scrimmage, so we know it’s still early in the process,” said Cadigan. “We’re still needing to clean up pre-snap penalties and early season issues like tackling and ball security. We’re going to enjoy this one for a few hours and then hit the film room (Saturday) and move on to Salem.”
