WA tramples Lincoln-Sudbury in one sided matchup
October 21, 2022
WA Football defeated Lincoln-Sudbury 21-6 at home on Friday, Oct. 14, improving their record to 5-1 on the season.
WA dominated from the first snap of the game, opening up a huge gap to allow senior running back Anthony Rudiman to rush for a first down. WA continued to lean on the running game during their first drive as they methodically marched down the field. Then, facing a fourth down and goal, junior quarterback Jake Cullen completed a pass to Rudiman who powered through the defense to get into the endzone. After a successful extra point attempt, WA had a 7-0 lead.
With only a few minutes remaining in the first quarter, WA’s defense then forced a fumble on LS’s first drive of the game. LS managed to force WA to punt, ending the first quarter with WA still up 7-0.
The crowd began to feel the momentum shift as LS was putting together a great drive down the field. But then, senior wide receiver and cornerback Luke Fremault intercepted a pass in the endzone to give WA’s offense the ball back.
WA began to put together another clock-eating drive as they continued to rely heavily on the running game. After a few first downs, WA entered LS territory. Then, Cullen threw a deep ball on the money to Fremault for another WA touchdown to extend WA’s lead to 14-0.
“Offensively, we stuck with our run game. They couldn’t stop us,” Head Coach Bruce Rich said.
With WA in the lead, LS tried to put a drive together to get some points going into the half. With only a few seconds left in the half, the LS quarterback threw a Hail Mary to the endzone, but Fremault was there for another interception to solidify WA’s lead going into the second half.
LS looked to get back in the game to begin the third quarter, but WA’s defense refused to break. After just a few plays, sophomore safety and wide receiver Alex Wilson only needed one hand to secure WA’s third interception of the game.
On the very next play, Cullen handed the ball off to Rudiman and he ran to the right for 50 yards. In the red zone with a chance to extend their lead to 21-0, WA fumbled inside the five yard line, giving LS’s offense the ball back. Despite how well his team performed, Coach Rich is still certain that if they eliminate these kinds of mistakes, they will be even better.
“We need to be more disciplined. We still had a lot of mental mistakes,” Coach Rich said.
After both offenses stalled for the rest of the third quarter, the fourth quarter began with WA still up 14-0. WA’s defense got the crowd back into the game with key sacks by junior linebacker Shane Clark and sophomore linebacker Ben Durgin.
WA’s offense continued to successfully chew the clock by running the ball right through the heart of the LS defense. Rudiman then extended the WA lead to 21-0 with his second touchdown of the game.
With just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, LS put together their first explosive drive of the game. They quickly got into the red zone and then the LS quarterback rushed it in for a touchdown as the clock winded down. After a failed two-point conversion, WA held a 21-6 lead with just seconds left on the clock. After draining down the last few seconds, the clock hit zero, and WA won the game with a final score of 21-6.
This win for WA improved WA’s record to 5-1 on the season, but this victory has much more significance than just another game in the win column.
“Our team played really well. We had not beaten LS in seven years,” Coach Rich said. “We clinched at least a share of the DCL title last night. This will be only the fifth DCL title in school history.”
WA will look to improve to 6-1 on the season this Friday, Oct. 21 on the road against Chelmsford.
