The Gloucester High football team passed its initial Division 5 playoff test with flying colors, racing past Auburn for a 20-0 victory at Newell Stadium last week.
Now it’s on to the state quarterfinals, where the Fishermen will be tasked with taking down a talented Foxborough team on the road Friday night.
The host Warriors, ranked No. 2 in the bracket, are coming off a 41-13 drubbing of Norton in Round 1 and have had some utterly dominant wins throughout the season. They’ve averaged just under 32 points per contest, compiling a 7-2 record thus far with their only losses coming via three-point decisions to strong King Philip Regional and North Attleboro squads.
Gloucester, meanwhile, has rode its strong run game (see Jaylen Severino, Thomas Cribbs and Joe Allen) to a 7-2 campaign of its own. But in recent weeks, it’s been the team’s defense that’s truly shined brightest.
Led by junior standout Max Thomas and a relentless line overall, Gloucester has allowed just 15 total points in its last three games. One of those two touchdowns came on a Winthrop kickoff return in a regular season finale setback on Halloween, so really, GHS has let up just one offensive touchdown in the past three weeks.
When teams do opt to go to the air, Gloucester’s secondary has been air tight in their pass coverage, regularly knocking down balls or deterring the opposing quarterback to even look their way to begin with.
If the Fishermen want to pull off an upset and advance to the state semis, their defense will need to continue to make big plays and keep a very capable Foxborough attack from finding a rhythm.
With no common opponents on each other’s schedule, Friday’s clash is a matchup Gloucester head coach Dan O’Connor and his staff have undoubtedly had to game plan for via watching extra film throughout the week. It won’t be easy, but the Fishermen are playing some of their best football down the stretch and should be up for the challenge.
“One play at a time, grind it out,” said O’Connor. “We’ll study, we’ll watch film, we’ll understand what we got to do, understand our assignments … we have to have faith and trust in ourselves and in our abilities to perform. We’ll give it a go and see what happens.”
Friday’s game is slated for a 6 p.m. kickoff at Ahern Middle School in Foxborough.
Sports Editor Nick Giannino may be contacted at 978-675-2712 or ngiannino@northofboston.com.