By John Devereaux
WABC Liaison
Westford Academy’s home opener against the Chelmsford Lions turned for the worst as the Ghosts took a heartbreaking loss to their rivals by a score of 31-0.
Chelmsford’s offense looked cold to start as they were held to only two drives and no points in the first quarter. This was in part due to WA’s defense. It looked promising in the first quarter, with a couple of tackles to stop big gains and a huge sack by senior Mike Burns to stop a small drive that Chelmsford was starting. At the end of the first quarter both teams were scoreless.
As the second quarter started, Chelmsford’s running back started to heat up. Despite hard fought defense by the Westford linemen, the #13 running back from Chelmsford fought for the extra yards to gain multiple first downs. He would eventually go on to score the first touchdown of the game. Instead of the traditional extra point conversion, the Lions decided to go for two points. They kept with the running game to gain those two extra points to give them a 8-0 lead.
Even though Chelmsford’s offensive game looked powerful in the second quarter, Westford’s defense was still able to stop Chelmsford’s second drive in the quarter with an interception by senior captain Brett Fitzgerald at the 50 yard line. Unfortunately Westford’s offense didn’t capitalize on the defensive effort, fumbling on the following play.
With five seconds left in the half, Chelmsford was in field goal range. Westford showed strong defense as they blocked the field goal to hold Chelmsford to only eights points in the first half. They went into halftime trailing Chelmsford 8-0.
“We played tough in the first half and we battled defensively and we hung in there, ” said Westford Academy’s head coach Adam Gagne.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Chelmsford’s running back ran in a 20 yard touchdown. They did not kick the extra point, as they instead kept to the run game and ran the ball for the extra two points instead, making the score 16-0.
Westford couldn’t keep up with the running backs that Chelmsford had to offer. They kept running the ball in the third quarter and as a result, another touchdown was scored, and with the run to get the extra two points they took a 24-0 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Westford’s offense was moving up the field, for most of the game with zero turnovers. Unfortunately the offensive line broke causing the sophomore quarterback Connor Degenhardt to scramble out of the pocket. He tried to throw the ball but the defensive line men stopped his throwing motion, causing the ball to come loose; Chelmsford recovered the fumble. Even though this was Westford’s only turnover, it was still a costly one.
Chelmsford would eventually run the ball in again for a fourth time, and kick the extra point to expand their lead to 31-0. For the remainder of the quarter it was just back and forth between the two neighborly rivals. With 30 seconds left in the game, Chelmsford was threatening WA as they were in striking distance to score for a fifth time. They were stopped by the defense as timed expired.
“At points we got good kids battling, at points we got good football here, and points where they’re not so good so we’ve got to take a good look at the film. We’ve got to have a good week of practice and we’re going to fix it up,” said Gagne after the tough loss.
The team will head into a bye week, as they try to learn and improve from this week’s loss.
