by Matthew Quinn
The North Attleboro Red Rocketeers faced off against the Bishop Feehan Shamrocks in their traditional annual matchup on Friday, September 14th. Big Red came into the game off a win 14-7 win against one of their biggest rivals, the King Philip Warriors. While the Shamrocks lost to Falmouth 22-16 in week one.
North got off to a good start with split end Ryan Gaumond scoring a long touchdown on a pass from senior captain Nick Raneri on the fourth play of the game. Later on in the first quarter, North stopped Feehan QB Tim Dambrosia inches from the endzone on fourth down. But the next play resulted in a safety as Brendan McHugh was tackled in the end zone, making the score 7-2, with North Attleboro leading.
After the safety, Feehan’s offense drove down the field ending in a touchdown on Tim Dambrosia’s three-yard scramble. But William Lynch missed the PAT attempt, making the score 8-7, Feehan.
Nick Raneri and his offense responded with a drive of their own, ultimately setting up freshman kicker Tyler DeMattio for a 25-yard field goal that he drilled through the uprights to set the score 10-8, with North back on top.
On the following drive, Feehan set up their kicker William Lynch for a 34 yard field goal that he missed, keeping the score 10-8 North. Big Red got the ball back at their own 20 with 1:20 left in the half, and Raneri lead his offense all the way down to Feehan’s 14 yard line. Tyler DeMattio made the 30-yard field goal making the score 13-8 at the half.
Even though they were leading, the North players were not satisfied with their first half performance. North Attleboro senior TE/LB Matt Warsofsky described the locker room as “Dead silent” at halftime. Senior nickelback Liam Conway said, “Even though we were winning, we knew we didn’t play well in the first half. We knew we had to step up if we wanted to win the football game.”
After stopping Feehan on the first drive of the second half, North got the ball back, but was eventually taken to fourth down and was forced to punt on their 33 yard line. The punt was mishandled by punter Max Bumpus and Feehan got the ball back on inside North’s 10 yard line. Feehan QB Tim D’Ambrosia scored on the 1 yard QB sneak on third down, then threw to Nick Norko to complete the two point conversion to make the score 16-13, with Feehan leading with 3:44 left in the third quarter.
On the next drive, Raneri’s pass intended for McHugh was intercepted by Ryan Corio, but Raneri made up for the mistake by knocking the ball loose from Feehan’s running back Ryan Jones on a big tackle giving Big Red the ball back. The Rocketeer offense was stopped after 5 plays following the fumble recovery.
Tim D’Ambrosia and his Shamrock offense came back on the field looking to pad their three point lead, and they ddid on Tim D’Ambrosia’s one-yard touchdown, William Lynch converted the PAT attempt to push the score to 23-13, Shamrock lead with 4:30 left in the 4th.
North answered Feehan’s touchdown with one of their own, with Brendan McHugh scoring a touchdown on a 9 yard run. But the PAT attempt was mishandled by the holder, which left the score at 23-19, with Bishop Feehan on top with 2:38 left in the 4th.
North went for the onside kick with hopes of getting the ball back, but Feehan recovered. However on the next play, Nick Norko found an open hole and seemed to be on his way to the end zone to put the game away, but captain Jonathan James hustled to track down Norko and stripped the ball from him, which was recovered by Omar Jasseh who took the ball to their own 10 yard line. The turnover gives North’s offense a chance to get a lead late in the game, but North’s final drive was not successful as Feehan’s defensive line was able to get to sack Raneri a few times.
This year’s game was shocking for both teams: Feehan, who is usually one of North’s easier opponents on the schedule, came into Big Red Country and beat them on their own turf. But that proves that any team can beat any team on any given Friday night. Feehan snapped their ten-game losing streak against the Red Rocketeers.
The First Launch 